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Every Saturday for a period of two months, from the beginning of April till the end of June 1992, sessions organized by the Belgrade Circle were held at the Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade. At these sessions, ten in all, intellectuals, members of the Belgrade Circle and their quest – distinguished writers, scientists, artists, journalists, film and theatre directors, architects, actors, interpreters – expressed their own views of another, radically different Serbia. In times of anguish and affliction, the meetings, attended by a large assembly of listeners experiencing a kind of moral purification, were nonetheless imbued with a frail hope that there still might be a chance for a turn in events. With a desire to present ideas, opinions and sensations shared by the participants of the Belgrade Circle sessions to a much larger audience, the reading public, and to preserve them, because of their merit, in a more lasting form, discussions of over eighty intellectuals were compiled to form this book. In the meantime, the overwhelming disaster has reached its climax: »The Bosnian War«, still raging with no feasible way out as yet, exploded and blazed up like fire. The Belgrade Circle participants, distressed and abashed at the display of all those real or imagined evil deeds, so eagerly reported by the portentous heralds of death voiced hitherto often deeply hidden and silent feelings and thoughts about their burdensome disgust at the plague gripping and afflicting us all. Each participant contributed in his or her own way – rigorous scientific analysis, artistic susceptibility, eyewitness accounts, or simply. A public-minded desperate wail – to the shaping of one new, public opinion, the one that stirred in that sad Spring of ’92 and rebelled against the general fear, animosity, devastation, extermination, ethnic cleansing, forcible population exchanges... All those responsible and public-minded citizens, holding different political opinions, some members of various political parties, with incomparable personal experiences, varied professional interest and often of »objectionable« national origin, showed, however the will to insert tolerance among the basic principles of a humanized way of fife. But, in spite of the pronounced differences, their common aim, discernable in each and every speech imported to the audience, was to finally establish a community based on simple but as yet still unattainable ideals such as peace, freedom, tolerance and justice in place of degrading political, national and religious exclusiveness. Participants focussed their attention on various aspects of the problem: some analysed the roots of hatred and evil; some indicated the disastrous consequences of irresponsible national myth revivals; others warned of menaces yet to come unless we see reason in time. Some were stern, others witty and others still perhaps too prone to pathos, but they were all deeply concerned, and, as it unfortunately turned out, correct in predicting subsequent events. Therefore, individuals who take no notice of current, official policy and who have for a long time now tenaciously refused to render their talent and knowledge to the needs of the authorities, gathered round a project titled »Another Serbia«. Instigating a state of war and providing alleged erudite justification for the necessity of mutual extermination in the name of some noble goals, vague even to the very massacre executors, must not and cannot be the vocation of anyone who considers him or herself an »intellectual«, or earns a living acting as one. Hence, all session participants had but one desire: to mark out a path that may lead into a more promising future, to another, different, better and happier Serbia. »Another Serbia« soon became the synonym of resistance to fabricated lies, nationalistic madness, criminal war, a fascist holocaust, senseless destruction of villages and cities. Thanks are also due to the daily newspaper »Borba« which regularly reported on the Belgrade Circle Saturday sessions, and published a number of contributions presented there... We hope that the Another Serbia we all aspire to be easily discernable in the collection of essays presented in this book. The reader who hopes to find traces of at least some political program will be gravely disappointed. At present, when politics have poisoned the very soul of so many men of letters and knowledge, and when, among the most violent oppressors, in the ranks of all mortal enemy groups, one finds so many proud bearers of scientific degrees, who may actually be designated as men of unmerited and easily squandered reputation, it has become somewhat indecent to praise »intellectual pursuits«. The Belgrade Circle was, however, founded early in 1992 with the aim of retrieving dignity – another dangerous quality! – to public speech and conceived plans of action for the benefit of truth. We do not take an elitist position and stand indifferently above the crowd. On the contrary, being deeply involved and concerned, we place ourselves in its midst. The Association of Independent intellectuals insists upon its main goal, as declared in the program, namely, to bring together »critically oriented public figured who wish to unite their own civil and intellectual engagements with those of other, basically similarly oriented people«. That is why the Belgrade Circle will continue to »promote ideas, deeds and activities that affirm the values of a democratic, civil and plural society...« The Belgrade Circle will »encourage free and critical thought in all spheres of public life. It will support and help institutions and individuals who resist violence and animosity, and who plead for dialogue and for the survival of culture as the only humanly valid way of life«. Fine speeches? Maybe. Nevertheless, the Belgrade Circle has already, and despite many organizational and financial hardships, as well as ugly and unjust abuse from people who should have been, by the very nature of their vocation, in our ranks had they not knuckled under the burden of a more noble – national to be sure – mission, gained an undeniably high reputation. The words uttered with the aim of promoting »Another Serbia« and presented in this book to serve at testimony to the existence of a number of sensible people, shrewd and brave enough to resist suffocation by overwhelming absurdity, were not the only »weapon« used by Belgrade Circle members. They had also an active part in numerous civil and peace movements and events, thus contributing to the establishment of critical public opinion in Belgrade and Serbia: let us recall, for instance, the sad candles and our wake in the park, with souls colder than the Belgrade frost, while one of the past infernal wars – God, which one was it? – was raging out there somewhere; let us recall the »Black Band«, »Yellow Band«, »Student Protest ‘92«, and our endeavours to bring the people of Hrtkovci (»Srbislavci«) to reason; let us recall our guests from Pljevlja, Montenegro, Bosnia... All the time we were just launching our unhappy and, we believe, noble, though perhaps futile venture the very first participant said: let the Belgrade Circle begin it’s work! We hope that by offering this book to the public we have already come a long way.
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Międzynarodowe public relations należy traktować jako dziedzinę powstałą w konsekwencji zmian i wciąż pogłębiających się procesów zachodzących na arenie międzynarodowej. Globalizacja, mediatyzacja i demokratyzacja doprowadziły do powstania nowych aktorów w środowisku międzynarodowym, a także redefinicji roli państw od ośrodków administracyjnych do podmiotów konkurujących ze sobą w zglobalizowanej gospodarce. Umiędzynarodowienie życia gospodarczego wymaga dostosowania się do nowych warunków poprzez wdrażanie pewnych rozwiązań od strony praktycznej oraz pojęć w wymiarze teoretycznym, który ową praktykę stara się opisywać i wyjaśniać. W sytuacji coraz większej roli mediów funkcjonujących w skali międzynarodowej, pogłębiającej się demokratyzacji i globalnej konkurencji umiędzynarodowienie public relations zdaje się nieodzowne. Państwa i nowi aktorzy, do których zalicza się między innymi korporacje czy też organizacje międzyrządowe, konfrontując się z wyzwaniami, jakie stawia przed nimi współczesne życie gospodarcze, muszą podejmować się działań z zakresu międzynarodowych public relations, aby zyskać atrakcyjność i konkurencyjność w środowisku międzynarodowym. Dziedzina ta wykracza poza tradycyjne ujęcie public relations, ponieważ należy w niej uwzględnić różnice językowe, kulturowe i geograficzne. Istotne wydaje się także to, że ta dziedzina odgrywa niezwykle ważną rolę w perspektywie państw i organizacji międzyrządowych. Działania z zakresu międzynarodowych public relations tworzą dodatkową, pozornie nieuchwytną, wartość w postaci reputacji, miękkiej siły i marki kraju, co przekłada się na zaufanie, a w konsekwencji pozwala na wprowadzanie pozytywnych zmian, promowanie wartości, poprawę efektów ekonomicznych i budowanie pozycji podmiotu w środowisku międzynarodowym.
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W ramach wspólnej polityki zagranicznej i bezpieczeństwa Unia Europejska stosuje sankcje mające wspomóc egzekwowanie jej celów, a zwłaszcza przestrzegania praw człowieka, demokracji i praworządności. Celem artykułu jest analiza skuteczności polityki sankcji Unii Europejskiej wobec Islamskiej Republiki Iranu. Zastosowaną metodą badawczą jest analiza porównawcza. Pierwsza część artykułu została poświęcona teoretycznemu ujęciu sankcji oraz czynnikom mającym wpływ na ich skuteczność. W następnym opisano podstawy systemowe wspólnej polityki zagranicznej i bezpieczeństwa Unii Europejskiej oraz zastosowanie sankcji jako jej elementu. W trzeciej części przedstawiono próbę oceny efektywności unijnej polityki sankcji wobec Iranu.
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The aim of this article is to analyze the conflicts which were ongoing in 2018,in Yemen and Africa. The selection of armed conflicts was made on the basis ofthree main criteria: intensity, i.e. the scale of battle-deaths; internationalization, i.e.military involvement of third countries; the activities of jihadist groups. The articlediscusses armed conflicts in the Sahel region and the Lake Chad, in Libya, Somalia,and Yemen. As part of the Strategic Yearbook series that reviews current armedconflicts, this study is a continuation of the analyses from previous years. Its purposeis to explore the conditions and dynamics of the 2018 armed conflicts and theirimplications for international security. It explains the reasons of their increasingintensity and internationalization. The expansion of jihadist groups, especiallythose related to IS (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the so called Islamic State) orAl-Qaeda (AQ), is perceived as an important factor in this regard. It is argued thatthe activity of armed jihadist groups leads also to greater military involvement ofWestern states.
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The article offers an analysis of the most important energy market trends from theperspective of their importance for energy security and climate change. The energyand climate systems are two areas of human activity strongly influencing each other.On the one hand, the way energy is produced and consumed influences the globalclimate system, on the other hand, climate policy impacts energy security. The articletherefore focuses on the directions and dynamics of changes taking place in theenergy sector and which are of particular importance for global reductions of CO2emissions. It gives an insight into the policies of the world’s largest consumers offossil fuels and into the extent to which their activities favour energy transformation.This analysis critically assesses the feasibility of achieving the global climate policytargets set in 2015 in Paris. Especially importantly for the Strategic Yearbook, the2018 events and current trends serve as points of reference: the article outlines theconditions and results of climate negotiations of COP24 held in Poland and thenewest IPCC report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. An analysis of demand-supplytrends, recent trends in the area of CO2 emissions as well as current events leads toconclusions concerning some long-term challenges for energy and climate security.
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Here we present the general aims and characteristics of budget support in the EaP region, the volume of support and a breakdown by country. Budget support is the predominant EU tool in the Eastern Partnership countries, as around 60% of bilateral financial resources are scheduled to be spent through such means. This comprises financial assistance supporting government reforms and paid directly to the state budget of a specified country. Therefore, it requires close cooperation between the national administration and the EU delegation, ensured by frequent communication as well as the participation of common monitoring committees. Two types of budget support have been in use in the EaP region: general budget support and sector budget support. Under the former, funding is provided for a broad range of reforms planned by the government for a given period of time, for instance, implementation of the association agenda or action plans. The latter, sector budget support, goes for reforms only in a given sector, e.g., energy or health. Sector budget support has been the dominant form of support in all of the EaP countries except Armenia, where general budget support was employed.
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This section presents how budget support has been used in Ukraine. Sector Budget Support (SBS) is the predominant EU assistance tool in Ukraine, with around 60% of all EU aid to the country planned to be spent in this way in the years 2007–2013. Six agreements were signed in the sectors of energy, energy efficiency, trade facilitation, environment, transport, and border management, and another is awaited in energy for an overall sum of €389 million. However, in total Ukraine received payments of no more than one third of this amount (€111.14 million) because since 2011 the EC has limited transfers for all operations. The main reason for this was non-fulfilment of a precondition on PFM, as since 2011 the country’s public procurement law and budgetary transparency have significantly deteriorated. This crucial condition ensures that funds are not fraudulently used. After two years of futile discussion on the implementation of this condition, the Ukrainian government finally adopted a PFM strategy in September 2013 (not made public) as this issue was made an EU condition to sign an AA.
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Since the onset of the Eurozone debt-crisis, Poland’s approach to the EU has gone through at least three distinct shifts as it responds to the deepening of Eurozone integration and the changing locus of power within the bloc. The first of these saw Poland acting as the bloc’s equality supervisor, defending the principle of parity between governments, particularly as guaranteed by the supranational institutions. During its presidency of the Council in the second semester of 2011, it forged a successful partnership with the Commission and Parliament. Yet that effort ended with the British “veto” at the December summit and with the signature of the fiscal compact, a parallel legal architecture potentially excluding non-Euro members. For Poland, signing the compact meant still belonging, but to a different kind of EU.
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The forthcoming years should prove the strategic importance of gas. The gradual replacement of coal as part of the effort to meet the requirements of EU legislation, the growing number of plants producing subsided biogas, and the dramatic changes introduced by the dawning of unconventional gas in North America have created a window of opportunity for natural gas to become a fully-fledged energy resource. The role of gas in Europe will also increase when plans for re-industrialisation—seen by many as a crucial factor to prop up the EU economy—are implemented, since the main sector that consumes gas has been traditionally industry. These are the reasons for why one may predict that in Central Europe in the next 15 to 20 years, the share of natural gas in the overall energy mix will remain rather stable, and may even increase.
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The Soviet Union is one of the old political forces that coerced or voluntarily held together ethnic or religious origins. It is a power that has left a very deep history in its past. The bipolar system in the world came to an end after the Cold War. After this situation, ethnic conflicts increased and spread to the Soviet Union in the 1980s and caused great repercussions in the world (Aslanlı, 2013). Conflicts occurring in the world have been a threat to security. These conflicts resulted in disintegration and in the early 1990s, the USSR was replaced by 15 new independent republics at the end of 1991 (İbadov, 2007).
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In 2019 the Terminology Working Group of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence defined strategic communications as follows: strategic communications, n.: a holistic approach to communication based on values and interests that encompasses everything an actor does to achieve objectives in a contested environment. As of 2022, strategic communications is conceived as a normative project, and as such its theorists and practitioners recognise certain principles that underpin their activities: #1 StratCom affirms the right of the individual to choose between competing ideas or reject them. #2 StratCom affirms a need for transparency and the right of individuals to hold those who practise StratCom to be held to account. #3 StratCom affirms the right of the individual to free speech.
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The study contains an attempt to answer two questions. First: why does war, which seems to be completely contrary to the idea of humanism and the essence of humanity,remain an integral element of the world around us? The second question is: why the war, and not the cold one but the hot one, returned to Europe? An attempt to answer the above questions has been set in the current socio-political and economic contextand what the author defines – following Robert Kagan (2009) – as the period of the return of history.
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This paper analyses neo-Ottomanism as an ideological current that aims to revive Turkey's Ottoman heritage, which seeks to combine modern statehood with traditional values and regional influence. Neo-Ottomanism stresses Turkey's importance as a worthy successor to the Ottoman Empire and its role as a bridge between East and West. In order to improve its international standing, Turkey needs to rethink and publicly acknowledge its historical and geographical identity. The approaches presented highlight Turkey's ambitions to rebuild cultural ties and establish new economic and political relations in the region. While neo-Ottomanism can contribute to greater regional cooperation, it also brings challenges related to historical grievances and the need to realign political alliances.
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The region of South Eastern Europe has long history dating back in the past of numerous armed conflicts provoked by ethnic and religious intolerance. The unstable ethno-religious situation was the legacy left after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire – a long process which started in the 19th century and officially ended in 1922. Another crucial moment that brought much instability to the region and especially to the Western Balkans was the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992 and the Yugoslav wars that came as an aftermath. Today the region is a more peaceful place due to the fact that all the countries initiated their European integration. Important factors for the stabilization of the situation are also the improvement of the economic stability and the energy integration between the countries from the region. The economic and energy interdependence is the most solid guarantee that the conflicts from the past will not repeat themselves.
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Ivo Pilar, Ph. D., (1874-1933), attorney-at-law, completed his brochure The World War and the Croats (Svjetski rat i Hrvati) in March 1915. It was published in Zagreb that same year. Knowing that the authorities of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy would not be pleased with some of his theses, Pilar published the brochure under the pseudonym Dr. Juričić. The author’s fears of a possible negative reaction to his geopolitical ideas were not ungrounded, since the state’s censor abridged Pilar’s original text thoroughly before he allowed it to be published. The second edition of Pilar’s brochure, containing many sentences that had been censored out of the first edition, most of them pertaining to the Central Forces’ unfaithful ally Italy, was published two years later. In his analysis of the political situation at the beginning of World War I, Pilar concluded that the times were fateful for the Croatian people, since the outcome of the war was going to decide with which country the Croatian territories would side in the long run. Tuđman felt that Pilar’s views were a reflection of the ideas of all the factions in Croatian politics that sought to solve the Croatian national question within the confines of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and within the Central European geopolitical territory. Even though Pilar’s basic hypothesis had proved wrong (he assumed Germany and Austro-Hungarian Monarchy would win World War I), some of his ideas, particularly the ideas about the geopolitical position of Croatian territories and their historical fate, still hold their original value.
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Českou zahraniční politiku ve vztahu k Rusku v roce 2014 přirozeně poznamenaly především události ve východní Evropě, jejichž významným účastníkem Rusko bylo. Tyto události byly přímým pokračováním dění na Ukrajině postupně gradujícího na podzim a v zimě 2013. A tak zatímco na počátku roku 2014 ještě čeští političtí představitelé ve vztahu k Putinově Rusku řešili na pozadí dramatizující se ukrajinské krize otázku, zda se účastnit olympijských her v Soči, minimálně od února 2014 bylo jasné, že budou muset ve vztahu k RF zaujímat postoje v daleko závažnějších otáz-kách a že vztahy Ruska a té části světa, jejíž součástí se ČR cítila již téměř 25 let být, se postupně dostanou do největší krize od dob skončení studené války. V české za-hraniční politice vůči Rusku se tak v průběhu roku 2014 postupně promítaly nejzávažnější události: na jaře to byla anexe Krymské autonomní republiky ze strany RF a dále postupný prudký nárůst napětí a násilí na východní a jihovýchodní Ukrajině a otázka ruského angažmá v celé situaci. Ačkoli do této události nebyla přímo zaan-gažována, dotkl se jí (podobně jako zbytku světa) i moment, kdy konflikt na Ukrajině vstoupil do povědomí veřejnosti řady států, i těch, které do situace nebyly zainteresovány prakticky vůbec: tragédie letu MH17.
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Balkán má v české zahraniční politice specifické postavení. V devadesátých letech se Česká republika aktivně zapojila do procesu bezpečnostní stabilizace v oblasti bývalé Jugoslávie, zejména prostřednictvím NATO. Později začala být pozornost věnována politické a hospodářské stabilizaci tohoto prostoru. Po konferenci EU se zeměmi západního Balkánu v Soluni v roce 2003 začal být proces stabilizace balkánského regionu v české zahraniční politice explicitně spojován s integrací jednotlivých zemí do EU a NATO. Také v Koncepci zahraniční politiky (dále jako Koncepce) schválené v červenci 2011 je integrace zemí západního Balkánu do EU a NATO označena za dlouhodobou zahraničněpolitickou prioritu ČR. Balkán však nebyl nikterak zmíněn v programových prohlášeních vlád Mirka Topolánka v roce 2006 a 2007, ani v prohlášeních úřednických vlád Jana Fišera v roce 2009 a Jiřího Rusnoka v roce 2013. Bezpečnostní, politická a hospodářská stabilizace Balkánu prostřednictvím integrace jednotlivých zemí do EU a NATO tedy představuje dlouhodobou, ale nikoli naprosto zásadní prioritu české zahraniční politiky.
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Česká zahraniční politika ve vztahu k Ruské federaci (RF) byla v roce 2016, stejně jako o rok předtím v roce 2015, ovlivněna především napjatou geopolitickou situací mezi Ruskou federací a západními státy a nevyřešeným konfliktem na východě Ukrajiny, ve kterém se Rusko od počátku vojensky angažuje. Vzhledem k tomu, že se ne-podařilo zastavit boje na východní Ukrajině a po celý rok 2016 docházelo z obou stran k opakovanému porušování minských dohod, které mají vést k vyřešení zostřené situace na východě země, a na jejichž dodržování a plnění jsou vázány unijní sankce uvalené na Rusko, rozhodla se Evropská unie (EU) prodloužit protiruské sankce. V porovnání s předchozím rokem 2015 pak vyvolala otázka prodloužení sankcí v České republice v roce 2016 daleko intenzivnější politickou debatu. Dalším faktorem ovlivňujícím českou zahraničněpolitickou debatu o Rusku byla jednak pokračující vojenská podpora vládnoucímu režimu Bašára Asada v Sýrii, za kterou RF čelila opakovaně mezinárodní kritice, a zároveň hrozba „hybridní“ angažovanosti Ruské federace v Pobaltí společně s údajnou kybernetickou aktivitou a dezinformační kampaní v zemích střední a východní Evropy.
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Česká zahraniční politika ve vztahu k Ruské federaci (RF) byla v roce 2015, stejně jako o rok předtím v roce 2014, nadále ovlivněna napjatou geopolitickou situací mezi Ruskou federací a západními státy a nevyřešeným konfliktem na Ukrajině. Po eskalaci bojů na počátku roku 2015 došlo 12. února v Minsku k uzavření nových dohod, které měly doplnit minský protokol ze září roku 2014. Tyto dohody představovaly plán, jenž měl ke konci roku 2015 vést k vyřešení ozbrojeného konfliktu na východě země. Nicméně ke konci roku 2015 byl pokrok minimální. Sankce uvalené na Rusko, jejichž osud je pevně spojen s plněním dohod, byly tak prodlouženy, což ovšem v České republice nevyvolávalo takové debaty, jak tomu bylo v předcházejícím roce.
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