Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Kosovo Activist Group Claims Credit for Grenade Attack
The attack on the head of the state broadcaster is another incident in a string of protests against a border deal with Montenegro.
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The attack on the head of the state broadcaster is another incident in a string of protests against a border deal with Montenegro.
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According to János Kornai, despite the undeniable original contribution of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, its author offers a partial and distorted analysis of the functioning of the capitalist system, which leads him to mistaken conclusions and to a very limited repertoire of recommendations for politicians. The Hungarian economist criticizes Thomas Piketty particularly for the omission of such aspects as the dynamics of capitalism, competition as a stimulus to act, technical progress and its impact on all aspects of modern human life. He illustrates his views with numerous examples taken from the work of other economists.
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Why do some public administrations perform better than others? This is an important question because theperformance of public administration is an important factor of a country’s competitiveness and economic outcomes.Our outcome index for public administration captures ‘good governance’, which includes the six components of theWorld Bank index, representing responsiveness, effectiveness, and legitimacy of governments. Northern Europescores especially well on good governance, followed by Oceania, Western Europe, Northern America, and EasternAsia. Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe obtained the lowest scores in the public administration outcomeindex. Professionalism (as a dimension of the quality of public administration), freedom of the press, the degree ofdecentralization, and intensity of ICT expenditure were significantly positively correlated with good governance.Spending on tax administration, on the other hand, was significantly negatively correlated with good governance.
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The author claims that universities, unlike vocational schools, have a mission to offer general knowledge totheir students, also in the domain of the humanities, and to form enlightened citizens rather than skilled workersonly. Emphasis on practical skills, narrow specialization, focus on professionalization in all higher educationestablishments brings about the crisis of the university and atrophy of civil society which is an indispensable elementof a well-functioning democracy.
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The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic impact of popularization of books in the electronic format. Thetext contains an analysis of challenges and problems in three key areas: business models, public policies, and copyright. On this basis, it is possible to establish strategies to minimize the negative effects of the recent developments and tomake good use of new opportunities.
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Municipal newspapers are published directly by city halls or by municipal companies established especially for thispurpose. The paper is devoted to an analysis of the role played by such newspapers in a city with poviat rights duringa mayor’s term in office and during an election campaign. The text presents the results of comparative research of thecontent of municipal newspapers issued in the years 2013 and 2014 (during the last election campaign). Standardizedinterviews have also been made with editors of selected media for the purposes of the research.The main research findings include the role that local-government papers play during a mayor’s term in office andthe ways they change their role in the election campaigns of current mayors of cities with poviat rights, and the waythe space for public debate is shaped on the local level. An important conclusion from the research is that informationpublished in local-government media is not always reliable and objective, and that elements of propaganda and nativeadvertising are used in them.The analysis provides input into the discussion on the need for media published by the local government that hasbeen carried out for many years.
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The paper discusses the issue of cooperation of higher education institutions (HEIs) with their environment. Itsmain aim is to identify HEIs’ external stakeholders and to determine the importance that HEIs give them. TheAuthor discusses this problem by analyzing the literature and the results of her own survey among rectors of HEIs. Inlight of the presented results, HEIs give the stakeholder status to many entities from their environment. Evaluation oftheir importance makes it possible to map them by dividing them into strategic, important, and others stakeholders.
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Issues related to spatial planning must be explained on the basis of a well-thought-out, comprehensive concept.The aims of this paper are above all:– to determine how the inefficiency of public authorities is ref lected in spatial planning;– to determine what elements associated with the public co-management theory should be included (and to whatextent) in the spatial planning system.What is more, a research hypothesis has been established: “Institutions and concepts associated with publicco-management should be substantially incorporated in the solutions for the spatial planning system.”
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The Uzbek President's absence at independence day celebrations had led some to believe that the strongman's days were numbered.
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NATO’s problems with its identity are the result of the West having lost its dynamismof civilisational expansion. After the Cold War the geopolitical subjectivity ofWestern Europe towards the United States was undermined within the Atlanticcommunity. The US became a hegemon and it is to its geostrategic interests thatNATO’s functions were subordinated. Presently NATO members face the need toredefine the organisation’s strategies and functions in the contemporary world.They must choose whether NATO is to constitute an intervention instrument in theglobal ideological struggle (in the name of ‘total democracy’) or fulfil the regional(transatlantic) defence functions for which it was established. Understandingthe axiological diversity and accepting the diversity of political systems is theprerequisite for developing a certain modus vivendi with the countries that constitutea source of challenge and threats towards NATO. Presently, the stability of theinternational order depends especially on establishing peaceful relations with Russia.
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Two-Tailed Dog Party is among the few willing to challenge the status quo ahead of the referendum.
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Power status as a category in the theory of international relations has been thesubject of analyses conducted by many researchers, including in France. Puttingout a challenge to states, numerous non-state actors of international relations joinedthe game for power. The experience of World War II left France with a deep senseof humiliation. De Gaulle considered it his mission to restore France’s image asa world power. The decade of his presidency (1958–1969) was the apogee ofFrance world power politics. Next to the seat in the UN Security Council, its basisincluded nuclear potential, contesting the United States’ leading role in the world,the Élysée Treaty with West Germany, the eastern policy, and France’s withdrawalfrom the military side of NATO in 1966 while still remaining a member of thealliance. The fall of the Soviet Union essentially changed France’s situation asa world power. France could no longer pretend to be conducting a policy of equaldistance between the blocs. French elites, however, believed that the country still was a world power. It pursued its goals in multilateral structures. And it alsoattempted to play the role of the intermediary between the West and the Islamicworld. Together with Russia and China, it advocates a multipolar world. Franceis the fifth world power in terms of share in global GDP, the fifth largest importerand sixth exporter in the world. It is among the countries that are the most opento foreign investments. The French military is the third largest in NATO. It oftenconducts foreign interventions. Between 2008 and 2012 France was the fourthexporter of arms in the world. In its policies it takes advantage of its culture andlanguage as well. It has the second largest network of diplomatic missions in theworld. It is particularly interested in the affairs of the Mediterranean Region andAfrica. The French have come to terms with the fact that they are not playing asgreat a role in international relations as the United States, China, Russia or evenGermany, but they also know that they have assets allowing them to be a Europeanpower with global aspirations.
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The popular belief that human rights are being violated in China, as manifested, forexample, in the form of the one-child policy, is a certain simplification. In politicalterms, China is not a uniform organism. The approaches to children in mainlandChina and in the autonomous regions differ. Alongside civilizational progress, China is experiencing changes that essentially go in two directions: on the one hand,the wealthy part of the society can afford to disregard the state-imposed financialrestrictions and have a number of children; on the other hand, the wealthy haveturned these restrictions into the practice of investing in the only child in order toprovide it with the best possible conditions for development. Studies show thatcontemporary Chinese do not in fact long for unrestricted procreation.
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The development of European supervisory structures should be analysed in a broaderperspective. The recently discussed banking union is another step towards theEuropeanisation of financial supervision. In 2011 it was preceded by the introductionof the European System of Financial Supervision with the European Banking Authority (EBA). The latter is an EU regulatory agency with a special place withinEU administration. While maintaining high independence, the EBA coordinates andregulates standards and practices in the field of banking supervision. The followinganalysis concentrates on the evolving role of the EBA in the changing Europeansystem of financial security.
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The aim of the article is to analyse the strategic choices made in internationalrelations by minor states, that is those that are not considered great powers, withspecial focus on members of integration structures. The analysis concerns inparticular countries that are considered peripheral, having a very weak position in the international system due to both their geographical location and small geopoliticalpotential. The article is divided into two major parts. The first one points out themost important threads in the theoretical discussion about the geopolitical roleof minor and peripheral countries. In the second part the author verifies the keyconclusions from this debate concerning the example of Poland, and specificallyPoland’s policy in the European Union as well as other foreign policy measurestaken by the Polish authorities.
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The article examines the question of the status of ‘little green men’ – Russian soldiersinvolved in the armed conflict in Ukraine. After the presentation of the facts, theauthor examines the applicable law and tries to answer the question about the natureof the armed conflict in Ukraine and the status of those taking active part in it. Thethesis of the article is the claim that the events in Crimea constitute an occupationand, consequently, international humanitarian law applicable to international armedconflicts applies in this case. In contrast, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine isat least a non-international armed conflict, to which the common Article 3 and theAdditional Protocol II and relevant norms of customary law apply. In situations ofdoubt as to the nature of an armed conflict, such a conflict should be regarded asan international one and thus the individuals participating in armed conflict, thosenot participating and those that ceased to participate should be granted prisoner ofwar status and consequently greater protection resulting from the application ofthe law of international armed conflicts.
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Palestine’s statehood remains one of the most controversial issues of contemporaryinternational law and international relations. Despite the position presented inresolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly as well as Palestine having joinedmany important international agreements under the same conditions as universallyrecognised states, some states still express doubts about the existence of the Stateof Palestine. The aim of this article is to show that Palestine has met the criteria ofstatehood and that states which have not so far recognised it are guilty of belatedrecognition. The first part of the article will briefly discuss the mutual relationsbetween the institution of recognition and the phenomenon of statehood. Then theauthor shall characterise Palestine’s presence in the United Nations. The next part willbe dedicated to discussing how Palestine meets the criteria of statehood. Followingthat the author shall present examples of bilateral relations between Palestine andthe countries that do not recognise it, which shall be later used to elaborate on thedefinitions of belated recognition and implicit recognition. The last part has beendevoted to issues related to belated recognition.
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This question is of key importance given that maintaining international peace andsecurity is what the Charter of the United Nations defines as the organisation’sprimary objective. The article constitutes an original interpretation of the prohibitionof the use of force included in the Charter of the United Nations. Article 55 in Chapter IX : International Economic and Social Co-operation speaks of peace inthe positive sense, that is not limited solely to the absence of conflicts but rootedin peaceful and friendly cooperation between nations. Peace in the negative sensemeans only the absence of armed conflicts. This concept of peace is predominantin the UN Charter, having legal and institutional guarantees. The legal guaranteeis set out in Article 2 Section 4, which radically restricts the right of states to useforce in international relations. The role of the institutional guarantee is playedby the Security Council. Its task consists in preserving and restoring internationalsecurity and peace, and its competences are determined in Chapter VII. Article51 of the same Chapter, in turn, which provides for a state’s inherent right ofindividual or collective self-defence. Does the UN Charter prohibit war? The word‘war’ as such is used in the Charter only once, in the Preamble, where war iscondemned. But violence has not disappeared from international relations since theUN Charter’s entry into force. The author presents three ways to interpret Article 2Section 4 of the UN Charter : integrist, nihilistic and pragmatic. The traditional,integrist interpretation assumes a universal and absolute ban on the use of forcein international relations ; the nihilistic interpretation assumes realistic evaluationof the situation, in practice granting numerous exceptions from the prohibition ofthe use of force. The author himself advocates the pragmatic interpretation, wherethe text of the norm is interpreted in the context of specific events that bring aboutthe use of force. The application of Article 2 Section 4 involves certain problems :the ban concerns only states, while non-state actors increasingly often use force ininternational relations as well. Other issues concern the interpretation of the threatof using force, restrictions to the application of the prohibition of the use of force,using force for implementing the principle of responsibility to protect and usingforce upon consent of the Security Council. The author separately focuses on theinherent right of individual or collective self-defence, provided for in Article 51 ofthe Charter. The majority of experts in the field represent the view that self-defenceis an exception from the principle of using force only in the case of armed aggressionof one state against another. The article further highlights the division betweenfunctional and structural self-defence. In the conclusion, the author points out theneed for the UN Charter to be more open, flexible and intelligent as regards theprohibition of the use of force.
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The article presents the possibilities of employing the ethnographic method inthe research of international relations. It outlines the characteristics and status ofthe ethnographic method within cultural anthropology itself as well as selectedresearch areas and subjects analysed by researchers of international relations usingthis method. It points out the potential traps and challenges facing researchers ofinternational relations wishing to use the ethnographic method in the context of the conceptual framework created by Ludwik Fleck, namely thought styles and thoughtcollectives. It raises the issue of disciplinary identity of international relations andconfronts it with the employed methods of international relations studies.
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The broadly defined North Korean problem has for years been a key challenge tosecurity in Northeast Asia. Relations between China and North Korea are an issuethat has been resurfacing on a regular basis in the debate on the resolution of theproblems in the Korean Peninsula. Because of numerous accumulated problems, resulting from, among others, the Pyongyang’s actions, the relations with the DPRKhave become a challenge for the foreign policy of the PRC in the 21st century.The dilemmas faced by Chinese leadership in its North Korean policy, increasinglymore serious, are reflected in the discussion on this subject in the Chinese academicand expert circles.The purpose of this article is to present selected views and opinions of Chinesescholars and experts on North Korea and the PRC’s foreign policy towards theDPRK. In the author’s opinion, the expert discourse signals actual problems and challenges faced by China’s North Korean policy. The disclosure of the debatecan be perceived as a specific signal sent by the authorities in Beijing the regimein Pyongyang as well as to the key actors interested in the North Korean problemin Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow. We should also consider whether andto what extent the critical signals coming from the expert circles may translate toa possible redefinition of the principles and directions of China’s foreign policytowards North Korea.
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