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Terrorism 2.0 in Eurasia
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: “New” terrorist organisations, characteristic of the post-Cold War period, sharply contrast with their more traditional (“old”) predesessors in Europe and Russia. These latter European terrorist groups (termed here as Terrorism 1.0) were mostly: sovereignty/ideology-driven, geographically limited,...
The New Terrorist Threat: Destruction of Western Credit Ratings
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work describes how capital terrorists and/or adversarial nations could use Western capital markets to injure Western economies and limit international power projections. Specifically, we analyse a particular vulnerability of international capital markets, the market for sovereign debt,...
The Abu Omar Case and “Extraordinary Rendition”
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: In 2003 Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (known as Abu Omar), an Egyptian national with a recognised refugee status in Italy, was been illegally arrested by CIA agents operating on Italian territory. After the abduction he was been transferred to Egypt where he was interrogated and tortured for more...
Some Caution, Please: Applying the Concept of Moral Hazard to Humanitarian Intervention
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The concept of moral hazard, born in insurance studies, has recently been adopted by international relations theory where it is primarily applied to humanitarian intervention. This article cautions against too hasty an embracement of the concept by IR scholars. Arguing that important theoretical...
Understanding Success of Targeted Sanctions: The EU in Zimbabwe
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2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2002 and this article aims at evaluating the success of that decision. Applying a broader definition of success, this article assumes that sanctions can coerce, constrain and signal. Contrary to most of the literature holding that sanctions...
Hungary’s Post-2001Ratification Challenges: Lessons Concerning the V4-Nato Relationship
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Hungary and the other Visegrad countries (V4), over the past decade, participated in coalition military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not Libya. This article examines how this has impacted Hungary’s standing in the North Atlantic Alliance, and to this end deploys the concepts of “two...
Global Power Transformations: Political, Economic and Security Dimensions
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: International relations are in the midst of tremendous transformation; to the distribution of political, economic and military power. This work traces such changes by looking at a wide series of indicators and seeks to explain - in a predictive manner - how the international environment will...
Building a Client State: American Arms Policies Towards Iran, 1950–1963
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Precious little has been written in academic scholarship about the US arms relationship with Iran. Much of the scholarly focus has been drained into an orbital vortex caused by twin crises in Iranian history: the 1953 British and American sponsored coup and the preceding oil blockade, and the...
Poland's Quiet Revolution: The Unfolding of Shale Gas Exploration and its Discontents in Pomerania
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: This research highlights the unraveling of Poland’s shale gas revolution and analyses the structural problems faced by villagers who oppose testing, drilling, wildcatting, and the production of shale gas in their rural communities in northern Poland. I argue that the bed-fellowship between...
NATO, Discourse, Community and Energy Security
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: This work analyses the relationship NATO has been constructing through its Strategic Concepts (1999 and 2010) between the military alliance and the “world-word” of energy security. Both NATO Strategic Concepts are viewed as meta-narratives which have been constructed to re-invent a role for...
The Controversy of Putin’s Energy Policy: The Problem of Foreign Investment and Long-Term Development of Russia’s Energy Sector
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: This work evaluates the long-term effects of Putin’s energy policy on the development of the Russian energy sector from the perspective of Critical Security Studies. One of the concerns related to recent developments of the Russian energy sector is the increasing level of governmental control...
Uncovering North Korea’s Energy Security Dilemma: Past Policies, Present Choices, Future Opportunities
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: Over the past two decades, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has allegedly developed nuclear energy while suffering near collapse caused by catastrophic economic policies. This work presents an evaluation of North Korea’s contemporary energy policies and stances and suggests...
Worth the Energy? The Geopolitics of Arctic Oil and Gas
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: Climate change is literally and metaphorically bringing the Arctic in from the cold in international affairs with new economic opportunities emerging with the retreat of the ice sheets. Prominent amongst these is the prospect of previously inaccessible oil and gas sources in the High North...
The Impacts of International Aid on the Energy Security of Small Island Developing States (SIDS): A case Study of Tuvalu
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: Tuvalu is a small island developing state (SID) with least developed country (LDC) status. The island has gained international attention due to the threat to its land territory as a result of climate change and subsequent sea-level rises. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, held...
Moldova’s Political Self and the Energy Conundrum in the Context of the European Neighbourhood Policy
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: This article employs a method of discourse analysis from a social constructivist perspective to evidence the emergence and stabilisation of a discourse of sovereignty in Moldova over the last decades. Within this context, it also explores the meaning of Transnistria and energy security for...
The Political Economy of Energy Security and Nuclear Energy in Jordan
Issue:
2012 - Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract: In 2007 the Jordanian government announced its intention to build one nuclear power plant by 2015 and a number of others by 2030. The objective of this nuclear energy programme was to provide a sustainable domestic energy supply and relieve the burden of reliance on external energy sources....
Why Isreal Fears a Nuclear Iran: Realism, Constructivism & Iran’s Dual-National Identity
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2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: This work compares and contrasts the theoretical models of realist and constructivist thought within international relations theory as they relate to the subject of Iranian nuclear proliferation. The spread of nuclear weapons to Iran and to the Middle East represents a unique international...
Civic Activism, Social Capital & Social Media in the Modern MENA Region
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2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: The unfolding unrest in the Middle East opened up new debates on the relationship between social capital and civil society. This work has a threefold focus: first, it explores how the existing stock of social capital spurred on the contemporary civic activities in the search of constructing...
Remaking US Foreign Policy for a Fresh Start with the Muslim World: Linguistic and Discursive Features of Obama’s Cairo Speech
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2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: Since his inaugural speech on 20 January 2009, Barack Obama has consistently kept the eloquence of his political speech that addresses the issue of change and the need to remake America by reintroducing it to itself and the world at large. In his Cairo Speech, delivered from the most populous...
Democracy & Human Rights Promotion in US Foreign Policy
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: This article delves into the driving forces behind the US’s human rights and democracy promotion policy. To facilitate the investigation of this work, liberal internationalism is deployed. This theoretical framework has been selected because of its insistence on the logic of consequences and...
Europeanisation, Bosnian Style
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: There is a wealth of literature criticising European Union (EU) member states for not speaking “with a single voice” regarding foreign affairs priorities. This work is yet another contribution to such scholarship though its direction, analysing EU approaches to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)...
The Potential Use of PMSCs to Fulfill the EU's Security Strategy
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: The EU is facing a gap between its security ambitions and the reality of its military capabilities. It is often argued that the suitably regulated use of Private Military Companies and Private Security Companies (PMSCs) by international organisations would prove beneficial for cost savings...
EU External Relations from Non-Intervention to Political Conditionality
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: The international system developed after the Peace of Westphalia placed at its core the idea that nation-states are equal units that cannot intervene in the internal affairs of other states, an idea which ultimately led to the conclusion that international anarchy is a reality of international...
Peacekeeping & Jus Post Bellum: Towards a Concept of Rules in Post-Conflict Situations
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 3
Abstract: This article argues that post-conflict peacekeeping should be seen as highly valuable for further developing jus post bellum, since the UN is the main actor in contemporary post-conflict situations. It elaborates on the historical background of jus post bellum, as well as the revival of the...
The Dark And Bright Sides Of Non-State Actors: An Evaluation
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: Non-state actors occupy an irreplaceable position in the current global system. Over the past decades they have become so influential that any analysis of international relations is impossible without their characterisation. This article advances a controversial hypothesis that the existence...
Reshaping Europe In A Multipolar World: Can The EU Rise To The Challenge?
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: Globalisation and the emergence of economic players such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have led to predictions that US hegemony will quickly decline as a new world order emerges. With the European Union (EU) also facing a downgrading of its own status – as economic, political and...
Is The EU Attractive?
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2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: This article introduces the EU as an attractive actor. It aspires to classify approaches shaping the current debate about various aspects of the EU’s relations towards other international actors (Europeanisation, soft power, civilian power or normative power) and derives two dimensions of attractiveness:...
The Potential Of Poland's Bio-Petrol
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: The aspiration to promote the bio-petrol industry is an attempt to provide a solution for some of the problems the European Union countries share, such as the decreasing importance of peripheral areas, the need to diversify energy sources and the commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. Once Poland...
French Foreign Policy And The EU's CFSP
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: This article examines some of the main phases of French activities within framework of the EU´s Common Foreign and Security Policy. Since the end of the Cold War the Fifth Republic has become obsessed with strengthening European political and military importance around the world. This was caused...
Statism In Russia: Implications For US-Russian Relations
Issue:
2011 - Volume 5, Issue 2
Abstract: This work identifies and assesses the general shift in Russian foreign policy thinking during Vladimir Putin’s presidency. The main thesis of this work is that a general shift in Russian foreign policy had occurred during Putin’s presidency owing to the rise in Statist thinking. To substantiate...