FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN TIMES OF COVID-19: CHILLING EFFECT IN HUNGARY AND SERBIA

Author(s): Kristina Ćendić,Gergely Gosztonyi / Language(s): English Issue: Suppl./2020

New technologies have opened several risks to safety of journalists. More importantly, in the state of emergency caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, journalists and media actors have shifted their activities online more than ever, which also made them more prone to digital threats and attacks. In some regimes there are even organized intimidation campaigns against political opponents causing chilling effect and self-censorship, and jeopardizing freedom of expression in general. Hungary as a member of the European Union since 2004 and Serbia as a leading candidate to join the EU are two countries where the problems and concerns about media freedom is growing every day. The fear from the unknown during the international pandemic gave opportunity to some governments to hide their real political agendas and cover their desire for the 'good-old-fashioned' censorship. The number of countries where some kind of censorship could be found is growing every day. The authors will show two country-case-studies from Hungary and Serbia, where the leaders and the political situations are very similar and could show a (good or bad) example to other countries that would like to follow the illiberal views on media issues.

VIETNAM AND INDIA’S APPROACH TO THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: IMPLICATION FOR BILATERAL RELATION PROMOTION

Author(s): Nguyen Thi Oanh,Pham Thuy Nguyen / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

There have been tectonic shifts in the Indo-Pacific region, impacting relations among international actors, including traditionally close partners like Vietnam and India. By using the approach of realism and constructivism in international relations, this paper discusses Vietnam and India’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region to expand their substantive strategic relationship. The paper finds out that geopolitical changes in the Indo-Pacific directly influence the bilateral relation and create challenges as well as opportunities. By using the SWOT model, the paper analyzes driving factors and challenges to the Vietnam- India relations. Through the findings, it suggests both countries need to take advantages of the regional cooperation to further Vietnam-India’s strategic comprehensive partnership.

CHINA’S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: EVOLUTION, CHALLENGES, AND THE GREEK CASE

Author(s): Georgios Zacharias / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

The construction of a positive international image is profoundly correlated with advancing one’s national interests abroad. Influencing foreign audiences and creating multisided links with countries of interest, is the main objective of public diplomacy. In the highly interconnected XXI century, countries have increasingly invested in that practice, assisted by major technological advancements. China is not an exception. The current paper will examine in which ways the latter conducts public diplomacy and through which actors. The study will also try to showcase the evolution and challenges that took place in this domain. Afterward, the case study of Greece will be considered, presenting the Chinese actors engaging in the country, the practices they use, and how the bilateral relationship has been affected. The essay will conclude with estimating the total effectiveness of the practices, possible challenges that exist, and several insights for future reference.

THE ESCALATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN ARMENIANS AND AZERBAIJANIS AND THE PROBLEMS OF PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH WAR

Author(s): Valeri Modebadze / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

This article explains why it is so difficult to achieve peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and what factors prevent the peaceful resolution of the conflict. This conflict is very difficult to resolve because the conflicting parties have contradictory geopolitical interests and cannot achieve consensus during negotiations. We have to take into account Russia’s geopolitical interests in South Caucasus that Kremlin is interested in freezing this conflict to weaken both states, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and bring them back to Russia’s orbit. Moscow aims to establish firm control over South Caucasus which was viewed in the past as a ‘Russian backyard’. Russia still views South Caucasus as its zone of influence and tries to bring this region back into Russia’s orbit.

Гръцката политемигрантска общност в България (1956–1983) и политиките по опазване на културното наследство

Author(s): Daniel Fokas / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

The article is dedicated to the Greek refugees, political emigrants, who arrived in Bulgaria in the middle of the twentieth century because of the Civil War in Greece (1946–1949). The author studies the reasons for the formation of the new community of people of Greek origin and the organizational structures that this community established with the cooperation of the Bulgarian state. Attention is drawn to the characteristic features and peculiarities of the community and the ways in which they influence its development. The focus is on the approaches for preservation and transmission of cultural tradition. The study also dwells on the development of specific set of regulations that allowed the development of amateur art among the Greeks in Bulgaria by the foundation of an educational structure and a network of clubs in the country. These activities are presented in relation with the cultural policies of the Bulgarian socialist state.

Песните на село Чавдар – част от живото културно наследство на България

Author(s): Radka Bratanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

Intensified cultural exchange in the twenty-first century lead to a specific process of globalization of musical folklore. That is why the preservation of valuable archaic traditions demands active endeavours.In 2018, in the Bulgarian village of Chavdar, an interactive Folklore Centre was founded. It offers interesting ways of collecting, archiving, preserving and exhibiting local cultural traditions. In the Centre, old phenomena intertwine with new technologies and museum exhibits “come to life” by means of interactive activities designed mainly for children and young people. In 2019, the team of the Centre continued their work on widening and completing the exhibition and the interactive activities. A central place in the new developments is given to music, dancing and children’s games.

Българи в чужбина, чужденци в България: институции, организации, общностен живот. Съставителство и редакция: Мариянка Борисова, Лина Гергова, Яна Гергова, Йелис Еролова, Таня Матанова.

Author(s): Katya Zhivkova Mihaylova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

Book review

Wstęp

Author(s): Piotr Mickiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

Różnice w podejściu do zwalczania dążeń separatystycznych i niepodległościowych mniejszości Pomorza Gdańskiego w latach 1900-1939. Analiza czynników kreujących odmienne stanowiska władz Rzeszy Niemieckiej i Polski

Author(s): Andrzej Gąsiorowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

The article presents the conditions of the policy towards the minority inhabiting the area of Gdansk Pomerania in the years 1900-1939. The focus was on determining the reasons for conducting a different policy by the German Empire and the Polish state established after the end of World War I towards Pomeranian indigenous people. It was shown that the main factors determining the manner of conducting this policy were the characteristics of individual national groups, the way the countries of origin influenced, and the reaction of this population to the actions of administrative authorities, which were considered a violation of their sense of security.

Był dziedzic, nie ma dziedzica: ziemiaństwo w praktykach zbiorowego pamiętania lokalnych społeczności wiejskich na Kielecczyźnie

Author(s): Anna Wylegała / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the Polish collective memory, namely – on the memory of the landed gentry and their expropriation from the Polish countryside conducted by the communist government in 1944. The communists expropriated the gentry, gave most of the land to the peasants and irreversibly changed social and economic structure of the Polish countryside. The paper analyzes how the very fact of the gentry’s historical presence and later expropriation is represented in the collective memory of the local village communities, and how it is used in the creation of the local memory scope and historical identity. The theoretical focus is on the acts of collective remembrance as understood in the work of Jay Winter, and then on the public aspect of the collective memory. Grounded in extensive fieldwork, this paper focuses on the case study of two villages which give examples of particularly active commemorative practices connected with the symbolic legacy of the expropriated landowners.

Печалният завършек на Новото славянско движение, 1947 – 1948

Author(s): Biser Petrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article examines the activities of the established at the end of 1946 Pan-Slavic Committee in Belgrade which, however, lasted only a year and a half. The Committee was created with the intention of being the centralized and ruling body of the Kremlin-born Slavic Movement after June 22, 1941. The emergence of the Committee came at a time when relations between the partners of the Anti-Axis Coalition had begun to deteriorate, and this circumstance inevitably made a direct impact on the tasks it was assigned. After the final bloc division of Europe and the Tito – Stalin split, the very existence of the Pan-Slavic Committee became meaningless, since the political exploitation of the idea of Slavic unity no longer fitted into the new realities and this resulted in its abolishment in the mid of 1948.

Socjologia publiczna epoki transformacji: Zygmunt Bauman i Jerzy J. Wiatr wobec przełomu ustrojowego

Author(s): Jacek Raciborski,Jarosław Kilias / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The paper deals with the public sociologists of the former Julian Hochfeld’s circle in the time of the political system change in Poland. Among the sociologists of that school Jerzy J. Wiatr played the most important role as both a traditional and an integral public sociologist involved in the Left-wing party politics. The paper depicts his activities as a public intellectual who became an eminent political leader, as well as his work as a social and political analyst. The paper confronts his vision of the political system change, as presented in the writings of the 1989–1991 period, with the work of another eminent sociologist of that school, Zygmunt Bauman. The latter did not play any political role and was much less involved in commenting the political change that was happening at that time, being a lot more skeptical about its result.

The US 2020 Election and Learning from History

Author(s): Adam Przeworski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The US 2020 presidential election constitutes an anomaly for the general paradigm of learning from history that organizes cross-national research in politics. Was it a unique event that can be ignored or must we consider that history is no longer a reliable guide?

Neoautorytaryzm: źródła psychologiczne

Author(s): Janusz Reykowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

During the last two decades, we are facing in liberal democracies various manifestations of a political crisis. The advanced forms of this crisis has been described by JerzyJ. Wiatr as new authoritarianism. It can be explained as a consequence of the development of antidemocratic political movements that are obtaining the increasingsupport of electorates in Europe and elsewhere. In this paper, two main causes of these processes are discussed: the imbalances in various spheres of the contemporary world – in political, economic, sociocultural spheres, in environment and climate as well as the sociopsychological consequences of these imbalances. Their main sociopsychological consequence in societies is the spreading of the sense of epistemic, existential andcultural (symbolic) threat. Psychological research indicates that the frequent reaction to such threats is the increase of conservatism and Right Wing Authoritarianism. Such reactions may have deep sources in some basic characteristics of a homo sapiens but they are not inevitable effects of the threats. In this paper, an effort is made to explain why in the contemporary world these psychological reactions to threats can be highly maladaptive.

Międzynarodowe okno pogodowe dla polskiej transformacji

Author(s): Roman Kuźniar / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The main thesis of this essay is the assertion of the concurrence of the Polish transformation after 1989 with the world switch towards the liberal international order at that time. Poland was among initiators of these changes and hugely benefited from them. It applied to the establishment of the regime of the rule of law and the open market economy. The success of the Polish transformation and the rapid economic growth would have not been possible or they would have been limited without this external support.The main although not the only theoretical explanation framework to these processes is the liberal school of thought. Democratic regress in Poland (since end of 2015) and a turn to authoritarianism coincide with backsliding of the international liberal order. Unfavourable internal changes incapacitate Poland’s foreign policy as well as its international standing.

The Visegrad Four and the European Union’s Future after Brexit

Author(s): Anton Bebler / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The East-West divide within the EU has deep roots in history. It has been reflected also in the Visegrad Four’s specificity and in its conflictual relations with several EU institutions and governments of several Western European members. As Brexit showed the V4 resistance to the EU federalization positively contributes to the EU longevity as a loose confederation. The real problem for the EU are illiberal regimes in V4 states and the phenomenon of elective authoritarianism which is not confined to Eastern Europe. The EU will have to learn to manage tensions created by these phenomena.

Z Adamem Michnikiem o PRL, przełomie ustrojowym i politycznej roli kilku uczonych rozmawia Jacek Raciborski

Author(s): Jacek Raciborski,Adam Michnik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Some reminiscences of Adam Michnik on Jerzy J. Wiatr and Zygmunt Bauman and some other public scholars at the time of the Polish People’s Republic and after its peaceful demise in 1989/1990. Main topics of the discussion between Adam Michnik and Jacek Raciborski concern the dynamics of the social and political changes that led to the regime change, the tension between their spontaneity and their conceptualization, social and psychological contexts of decision making at that time, and the issue of responsibility of people handing over power peacefully: if and how let them be a part of the transition without punishing them for previous crimes.

CHINA-INDIA NEW INTRICACIES: RIVALRY AND COOPERATION IN A NEW CHANGING GLOBAL CONTEXT

Author(s): Buddhi Prasad Sharma / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

At the changing geopolitical landscape with the Covid-19 pandemic scenario, the China-India tussle and scale of regional and global exposition has begun to display with certain consequences, which seems to shake the existing regional balance of power. A mounting political and military confrontation between these two powers as experts suggested could create a hurdle on regional-global stability and can strike on the path of globalization. With historical and existing context analysis, this paper explores that putting genuine differences aside, China and India being responsible stakeholders of the global community, can cooperate and contribute to regional and global peace and prosperity. This paper is based on qualitative research and explorative form in a pattern. This paper concludes that to reduce protracted political and border-related tensions, continuous institutional dialogue, regular communication, and formal-informal exchanges could be effective tools for a peaceful resolution. At this juncture, the competition and cooperation approach could be useful for fostering China-India bilateral relations, and this situation will help to address common challenges of the global community, restructure the global order, and re-adjust regional and global scenarios crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

THE NATURE OF THE ENGAGEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE SYRIAN CRISIS: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Author(s): Zainaddin M. Khidhir / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

The complications of the Syrian crisis that has extended over six years are overseen on three distinct levels which are national, topographical, and global. A closer look at the situation in Syria in 2010/2011 will help explain why the regime has survived, the complexities of the situation in Syria, and what makes the search for a stable political settlement so difficult. The purpose of the present study is to highlight the nature of US engagement in the Syrian crisis which involves maintaining the US military presence for regional stability, ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS, countering the future expansion of the Iranian influence and political settlement to the conflict, containing the Assad’s regime in the interim. By outlining various threats, issues, assessing the Syrian conflict and its key actors, this paper seeks to explain the US response to the Syrian crisis on basis of thematic analysis. In conclusion, the United States' foreign policy has continued in a region vital to its national security interests due to available oil, its impetus to protect Israel, to support security by retaining military bases, to preserve the position of the protectorate of client states, and friendly regimes, and to resist Islamic movements and terrorism.

CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE AND GEORGIA: A SHORT OVERVIEW

Author(s): Ekaterine Lomia / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

Since the beginning of the 2000s, China has embarked on an unprecedented path of economic development, as evidence of which is the largest economic project of the XXI century initiated by the People's Republic of China. The global Belt and Road Initiative announced by the first person of the country, Xi Jinping, is a shortened name of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ and ‘XXI Century Maritime Silk Road’. It covers the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Africa and involves more than a hundred countries, international organizations, and leading economic actors. The main participants in the project are China, Mongolia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, and India. The article reviews the role of the Chinese project in a global context. The paper focuses on the role and purpose of Georgia in the Belt and Road Initiative. This study will try to reveal the results for the benefit of Georgia, which is one of the participating countries, and the role of China through research to be made from documents and academic studies on the subject. Georgia tries to conduct its relations with China, as a partner in the project, with a policy of balance without disturbing its relations with the West.