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Western Imaginary and Imagined Defense Strategies of Eastern Europe and its Borderlands
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: This work discusses how the Western imaginary or the way “the West looks East” reinforces the construction of “unstable” or ambivalent identities in the new European countries, as well as the margins of Eastern Europe. Particularly, it deals with the Western discourses that locate Eastern Europe...
Politics and Religion in Europe: The Case of the Roman Catholic Church and the European Union
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The rise of religion in international politics is often treated as a self-evident trend of recent decades. But what exactly is new about religion in global affairs that it deserves such focused attention? Is it the growing numbers of believers of major religions, or the increasing fundamentalist...
Arms for Arbenz. Czechoslovakia's involvement in the Cold War in Latin America
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This article introduces an under-researched historic problem about the relationship between Czechoslovakia and Guatemala during the protracted Guatemalan Revolution (1944-1954). Czechoslovak relation with Guatemala were already established during the interwar period when the (relatively) small...
Czechoslovakia and Brazil 1945-1989; Diplomats, businessmen, spies and guerrilheiros
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work summarises political, economic and security relations be- tween Czechoslovakia and Brazil from 1945 to 1989. During this pe- riod Brazil adopted different approaches towards the Eastern bloc. In this context, despite some difficulties, Czechoslovakia not only main- tained diplomatic...
Czechoslovak-Latin American Relations 1945-1989: The Broader Context
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: After 1945, Czechoslovakia resumed its diplomatic and economic rela- tions with Latin American countries; disrupted during the occupation of the Second World War. At that time, Czechoslovakia had the most diplomatic offices in the region of the entire Soviet bloc. Communi- cation between Prague...
Political and Economic Relations between Czechoslovakia and the Military Regimes of the Southern Cone in the 1970s and 1980s
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Based on unpublished archival documents, this work analyses the relations between Czechoslovakia and the military regimes in Argentina (1976–1983), Uruguay (1973–1985) and Chile (1973–1989). Besides Czechoslovakia, attention is also devoted to the Soviet Union which had a significant influence...
Turbines and Weapons for Latin America: Czechoslovak documentary film propaganda in the Cold War context 1948-1989
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the Czechoslovak documentary film production concerning Latin America in the context of the Cold War. It is analysed as a crucial means of domestic propaganda, promoting involvement in a distant region before a wider public. This was achieved by creating a matching discourse...
Czech Tractors, Cuban Oranges: An Outline of Economic Relations between Socialist Czechoslovakia and Revolutionary Cuba
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work deals with the economic relations between Cuba and social- ist Czechoslovakia from the early years of the Cuban Revolution until the fall of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (cee). This work suggests that economic relations constituted the backbone of the Czechoslovakia’s...
Uncovering Romania by Geography: How Geography Cultivated Lands and Romanians
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work contributes to the understanding of how the institutionalisation of geography as a science and discipline empowered the Romanian elites’ nationalist discourse before World War Two. Far from being an objective, neutral and value-free science, geography invented new worlds and served...
Misadventure or Mediation in Mali: The EU’s Potential Role
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: With a humanitarian crisis mounting in the West African state of Mali, the Council of the EU has called on the Economic Community of West African States to deploy a stabilisation force to the northern regions of the country. But such a military intervention would have to contend with a plethora...
Alternative Futures for the EU-Turkey Accession Negotiations
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work proposes a simple two-period interaction model to study EU-Turkey accession negotiations. Turkey perceives the EU as composed of two distinct groups with respect to its accession: traditional supporters and objectors. Supporters opt for either cooperation or defection in period one...
Improving the ENP and Establishing the Eastern Partnership Initiative: A Czech Perspective
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is among the most important external policies of the EU. Unfortunately, it has not substantially influenced EU member states as was intended. This led to other regional EU initiatives that have similar aims but took a more differentiated and country-specific...
In Every Zealot is Deep Doubt: Islamism and the Role of Psychology amongst British Muslim Students
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Drawing on Razzaque’s seminal book, From Human Being to Human Bomb which identifies patterns of extremist thought processes amongst young British Muslims, this study is the very first attempt at empirically testing such a concept and establishes a precedent for the study of the links between...
Cyberspace in Canadian Security Policy
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The phenomenon of cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, or even the first examples of using cyberspace to conduct military operations has convinced decision-makers that new solutions to security challenges need to be implemented. Cyber attacks in Estonia and Georgia, multiple incidents in the United...
Agenda Setting of the EU mission in Kosovo – A constructivist read
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The EU’s paradigmatic conceptual relationship to Kosovo is based on a post-conflict agenda, which seeks the development of a sustainable democracy. According to Laidi, a democracy building agenda in the Balkans gives the EU great leverage and accountability on nation state building. Yet, the...
National Parliaments in the Council: Parliamentary Scrutiny Reserves
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This research compares the activity of different groups of national parliaments in European decision-making as reflected by the use of parliamentary scrutiny reservations by Member States in the Council. It aims to contribute to the comparative literature on national parliamentary scrutiny...
The Europeanisation of Political Communication: Framing the Online Communication of French Political Parties
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The aim of this article is to examine the process of online Europeanisation of political communication, both theoretically and through empirical analysis. On one hand, the text emphasises the relationship between the public sphere and the legitimacy of the EU and examines different concepts...
After a Violent Revolution: Romanian Democratisation in the Early 1990s
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The 2011 uprisings in the Middle East have frequently been compared with the revolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe. The prospects of the first free elections in countries such as Egypt and Libya gave rise to concerns over the extent to which the regime change can be equated with...
The Regional Policy and Power Capabilities of Jordan as a Small State
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article deals with the foreign policy activities of Jordan as a small state with a special focus on the Middle Eastern region. The article explores the impacts of Jordan´s “smallness,” its lack of power capabilities in terms of foreign policy, and its relations with other states in the...
Insurgencies, Border Clashes, and the Security Dilemma: Unresolved Problems for ASEAN
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The decision to deepen ASEAN cooperation by creating the ASEAN Community and particularly the concept of ASEAN as a Security Community has been debated heavily among academics. As no large scale war has occurred between the member states since the founding of ASEAN in 1967 it is reasonable...
Understanding China’s Global Search for Energy and Resources
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The need for massive amounts of energy sources, raw materials, and natural resources is, in part, driving Beijing’s defense, energy, and foreign policies. The dynamic economic growth rates experienced over the past twenty years, coupled with increased manufacturing levels, rising exports of...
A Meeting of Minds: Sino-Pakistani Military Relations
Issue:
2013 - Volume 7, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This paper examines defence cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It suggests that both countries have a strong convergence of security perspectives which encourages continued close ties. However, along with such ties comes the risk of an authoritarian...
Turkey’s Role in European Security Governance
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: This article evaluates Turkey’s position in European security governance. In the post-Cold War period, the administration, coordination and regulation of security has been, largely, performed through such an approach which itself is based on three assumptions. Firstly, the meaning of security...
Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Military Conflict to Political Deadlock
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: This article engages in the ongoing debate about the overall value of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFAP), which is one of the most challenging issues in the contemporary peace studies scholarship. In order to support scholars who argue that the constitutional...
Defining an Individual Security Community: The EU and ASEAN in Contrast
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: This work seeks to reveal differences in the understanding of the concept of security between the EU and the Association of South East Asian States (ASEAN) and to adequately account for such differences. This work considers that ASEAN qualifies as a nascent security community confirming that...
Divide et Impera?: Western Engagement in the Middle East
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: One, important, reason driving recent instability in the Middle East is the influence of Western powers on local actors. In the first half of the 20th century the UK and France held significant sway; during the Cold War the US and USSR were dominant. After the Cold War, the US emerged as the...
The Polish Biomass Industry: The Case of Bobolice
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: The renewable energy industry has recently gathered momentum due to green awareness, the need to diversify energy sources and the rise in oil and gas prices. In many ways, the Polish biomass industry has greater potential than others new EU members (post-2004). Poland’s size, as well as its...
The Security Council’s Endless Enlargement Debate
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: Recent talks on UN Security Council reform mainly focused on enlargement issues based on the competing positions of the G4 (Germany, Japan, Brazil and India) and UfC (core members Italy, Pakistan, Mexico and Egypt); groups which seem unable to reach a compromise in the near future. Even if...
The EU and the Alter-Globalisation Movement’s Actorness
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: This article deals with two actors – the European Union and the alter-globalisation movement – and their mutual relationship regarding recognition. Both actors profile themselves internationally as environmental and human and social rights defenders; they both create their own discourses, e.g....
Non-State Military Actors: The Case of the 2011 Libyan Conflict
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 3-4
ABSTRACT: Non-state military actors (i.e. private military companies, contractors and/or militias) form an inherent part of the present global system. In many cases, however, the role and participation of non-state military actors appears to be rather ambiguous and unclear. In order to illustrate the...