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“People’s candidate” Pashinyan poised to become head of a system dominated by the old guard he wants to uproot.
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More hardships in store as citizens will no longer receive free utilities from next year.
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Coalition criticized by domestic opposition and EU for going slow on rampant corruption.
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Alexander Torshin boasted of his NRA membership, and sought meetings with Trump.
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The Phanariot period in Romanian history is synonymous for many people with the corruption, the excessive fiscal policies, the denouncements , the hope of rapid enrichment, the endless conflicts between Boyars of Wallachia and Moldavia, the Greeks and the rapacious rulers, the monasteries dedicated to the Holy Places of the Orient and especially, the resentments of population against the privileges of the clergy and monks Greek etc. A closer look at social realities reveals the interest of some rulers to the good functioning of the administration, education and culture in the Principates, often appealed to the concepts and reformist ideas. But it's really important was that the Wallachia and Moldavia did not lose their autonomy although it was limited. The presence of a Christian ruler at their head was the symbol of the preservation of the statehood. The rest are details or are the pages from lives people who have lived in that period full of major provocations.
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Detection of bribery cases is very hard in practice, as all parties suspected to be involved in the process are not incentivized to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. Most legal systems treat bribe-giving and bribe-taking as symmetric and interdependent criminal actions, thus making whistle-blowing on corrupt officials much harder. This paper investigates the effects of different punishment systems on deterring bribery. The overall aim is two-fold: the first is to outline the differences between the symmetric and asymmetric punishment systems and to explore the impact of legal liability of parties engaging in collusive bribery; the second is to propose a theoretical approach to deterring collusive bribery labeled as “facilitated asymmetric liability model”.
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The purpose of this presentation is to highlight the interdisciplinary character of the third generation of discourse theory, as well as its capacity to open new perspectives in the study of political phenomena. To this end, we will first theoretically reference the stakes of interdisciplinarity in connection with the emergence of discourse theory as a forward-looking approach in the humanities and social sciences. Secondly, we will look into the five premises of discourse theory, which will be assessed as intellectual products of an essentially interdisciplinary process which consists of bringing together and mutualizing research strategies which belong to various scientific fields (sociology, linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, political science, psychoanalysis). Thirdly, we will explore the merits and limits of the use of discourse theory as a theoretical framework and an explanatory tool in the analysis of political phenomena.
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The international financial system developed to one in which every currency in the world is exposed to inflation and the banks all over the world are monetary institutions designed to obtain profits by trading money. This is an important threat to the economic security. It leads to polarisation, to the growth of poverty and to other more profound results. A short article in this magazine is not enough in order to analyse all these. This paper intends to blow a whisle and show, beside the things shown above, some historical examples of currency without interest and inflation which led directly to economic performance and to the economic rise of the societies which used this kind of currency.
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At a time of visible oppositions and some tensed relations between Member States of the EU, the article aims to advance the study of bargaining and unilateralism in reiterative consensus building processes such as multilateral negotiations within the EU. It examines how bargaining tendencies influence the three dimensions of any negotiation: the architecture of the negotiation; the deal-making and haggling; and the interpersonal level. Using selected theory and research, it identifies the essential elements of a successful bargaining formula applied to EU negotiations. The article proposes to combine principles and techniques originating from game theory; hostage negotiations and crisis bargaining; and military methodology.
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Author Ion Brad lived most of his life under the Communist regime, starting his career when the Communist system was founded in Romania and retiring in 1989, when the totalitarian system was abolished. This present study aims at analyzing the articles which author and journalist Ion Brad had published for one of the most prominent newspapers during the Communist regime in Romania, in the '60s, Scânteia tineretului. Directed especially at young people but not only, the newspaper reveals the various practices of the Communist state to impose on the collective minds. We have chosen this particular publication and this period of time in Ion Brad's activity because this is when, in our opinion, he did the most intense work in the political journalism. As an author, he wrote hundreds of articles and tens of books in the cultural field. This study can also be helpful for further research on the political issues approached in Scânteia tineretului or even on economic issues, in which one can analyze the reports about the construction of various towns in Romania under the Communist regime.
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Corruption, defined as an abuse of the public power for the illegal private gain, is a serious threat to economic and social development and there is no public acceptance for it in the society. Corruption should be seen not as a social disease, but a pathology of the authority system. Effective prevention of corruption is essential for economic and social development, in particular by eliminating corruptive mechanisms, i.e. irregularities causing or increasing the risk of corruption. The state should provide a sense of anti-corruption security in society, and transparency in law and decision-making, the exclusion of conflicts of interest, disclosure and effective control are essential elements of this security. In Poland, significant but not sufficient progress has been made in the field of anti-corruption security framing.
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Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has engaged in a number of ambitious interventions in postwar countries with the aim of fundamentally reshaping state-society relations through building new state institutions, restructuring economies and supporting the development of civil society. The notion that international actors are able to build effective and legitimate state institutions in societies recovering from war has led to a proliferation of studies that have explored, both theoretically and empirically, the impact of international state-building. The general consensus in the literature is that the record is not a good one: the few success stories of international state-building have been overshadowed by a laundry list of failures. Explanations of these failures typically range from a mismatch of resources and mission objectives1 and the lack of strategic coherence among international state-builders2 to the deleterious effects of liberal interventions3 and so-called ‘liberal imperialism’.4
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Tax havens have long been under the attention of numerous Governments and International Organizations which triggered the concern of an uneven playing field in the taxation area. As a result numerous amendments have been made to both their commercial and tax legislations in order to be in line with the internationally agreed tax standards. The aim of this article is to conduct a SWOT analysis on the offshore corporate structures found in the Caribbean landscape. Based on a selection process of the most commonly recognized tax havens in the Caribbean region and an analysis of their offshore companies at the level of incorporation, administration, activities conducted and costs, a set of frequently met characteristics have been identified which stand at the basis of the SWOT analysis. The results stand to present a comprehensive four dimension framework of the offshore corporate structures in regards to their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
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CSIE Working Papers is a peer-reviewed academic online journal with four issues a year. Being launched by Center for Studies in European Integration, it offers an opportunity for young researchers to publish their scholarly papers, the results of their research activity, to get a feedback from the other researchers, to improve the methodology and to validate the results. Additionally, it encourages the exchange of the latest academic research and provides all those involved in research and practice with news, research findings, case examples and discussions.
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1. Even though Chechnya remains the most unstable republic in the Russian North Caucasus, the open armed conflict known as the Second Chechen War, which broke out in the autumn of 1999, is gradually dying down. The fighting has become less intensive every year, and the militants, worn out by years of warfare, are unable to take the initiative and seriously challenge the federal troops stationed in Chechnya. However, even if the militants have lost strength, this does not mean that the conflict is over. The region's history and the increasingly tense situation in the other Caucasian republics bordering Chechnya suggest that instability will probably continue for many more years.2. Several years ago, the conflict in Chechnya could have been characterised as a war between Chechen separatists and the government of the Russian Federation. However, the nature of the conflict has changed significantly over the last four or five years. At present, it is not only a Russian-Chechen conflict, but also an internal clash between the separatist militants and those Chechens who are co-operating with Moscow. The conflict also has an increasingly apparent social background. Finally, the militants' ideology has also changed: today they are fighting not so much for national liberation as for the Islamic cause.3. Even though the intensity of fighting in Chechnya has abated in recent years, the conflict has spilt over to the other Caucasus republics such as Ingushetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. As a result, this is presently not so much a Chechen conflict as a regional clash between the authorities and the Caucasian (including Chechen) Islamists. The latter seek to 'liberate' the entire North Caucasus and establish sharia law in the region. 354. The Chechen militants are weaker now, and the conflict has changed from a struggle for national liberation into a fight for the Islamic cause; but this does not mean that Russia has ultimately solved the problem of Chechen separatism. Today, it manifests itself not through armed struggle, but through demands for ever-wider autonomy within the Russian Federation ('hidden' separatism). Such demands have been raised by the formally pro-Russian government of Chechnya, led by Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov. The objective is to acquire real, rather than formal, independence from Moscow, especially in the economic sphere. An analysis of the current situation in the republic leads to the conclusion that this objective has already largely been achieved; today Chechnya in many areas remains outside the Russian legal system and enjoys extensive internal autonomy. 5. A renewed outbreak of the armed conflict in Chechnya seems unlikely in the immediate future, the main reason for this being that the Chechen people are tired of the long war. In the longer term, however, it appears inevitable that the Chechens will rise against Moscow again, fighting either for national liberation or for Islam. In the former case, the movement will be probably led by the current, formally pro-Russian government. However, it is also possible that by that time, the Caucasian Islamists will have gained enough strength to become the driving force behind a new, massive uprising against Russia, whose objective will be to create an Islamic state in the North Caucasus.
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This study aims to identify the extent of the response of operating banks in Jordan to the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing instructions set by the Central Bank of Jordan, and to enumerate the effectiveness of these sets of laws, the echelon of cooperation with the relevant government agencies and the impact of contiguous political and security conditions on the anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism. To attain the objectives of this study and to test its hypotheses, a descriptive analytical method was followed based on related data of the Central Bank instructions and the engaged procedures by operating banks to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. Therefore, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to the managers of anti-money laundering departments in operating banks in Jordan. The study shows various outcomes, the most important is the high responding of operating banks in Jordan to the instructions of the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing issued by the Central Bank of Jordan. The existence of practical application of money laundering and terrorism financing instructions fights against money laundering and terrorism financing in banks in Jordan at a soaring level. In addition to the functional cooperation by the competent governmental authorities in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, this study introduces a set of recommendations to reinforce the cooperation level for every related party to achieve a high level of cooperation in the field of the anti-money laundering and financing terrorism.
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In an interdisciplinary perspective, between earth sciences and political sciences the present article shows that the concept of epistemic communities, frequently used by political scientists specializing in the sociology of public policy, says very little about the inner workings of the scientific field. This article shows that the concept of epistemic community tends to mask the complexity of the situation of expertise to highlight this point, we chose to study three cases of crisis management associated with the same type of hazard, of volcanic origin, which reveal the difficulties related to various levels of interdisciplinarity. The first crisis studied here is related to the eruption of La Soufrière volcano on Guadeloupe in 1976. This event gives a picture of various epistemological positions within the same discipline, i.e. the earth sciences of the Earth, and illustrates their possible consequences in the public sphere. The second crisis is related to the eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat (1995 and ongoing). Although the experts are again drawn from the earth sciences, they represent different specialities. We find that the experts knew how to make use of probabilistic tools to overcome the difficulties related to uncertainties inherent in the crisis and, beyond that, arising from the incompleteness of their knowledge. Lastly, we discuss the crisis related to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. In this last case, the composite nature of the hazard required us to call upon experts from two different disciplines: the earth sciences and atmospheric sciences. Specialization appears here as a factor of vulnerability. Indeed, the crisis confronts the experts with a mismatch between their approaches and makes it difficult to develop an opinion that fully benefits from their different types of expertise.
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This paper will give an account of the mechanisms available to the Macedonian Parliament to conduct parliamentary oversight of the intelligence services, particularly those within the jurisdiction of the specialized parliamentary committees. It will then examine cases from other states in the region and look for practices and legal solutions that they have established in order to encourage financial accountability of their intelligence services. As former Yugoslav republics, during the last two decades these states were facing the challenges of transition and building democratic, transparent and accountable institutions. However, not all of them have progressed at the same pace. The best practices are elaborated in two case-studies – Slovenia and Croatia, both members of the European Union. Furthermore, their oversight systems differ at many levels, having been created and developed according to each country’s specific processes and needs. They should serve as examples to better understand the role of parliaments in ensuring the accountability of intelligence services in the implementation of programs and projects financed with state money. Thereby, the case-study sections provide a brief overview of the formal intelligence services and authorized bodies for their oversight. The focus is put on the role of the parliament (directly or indirectly through parliamentary committees) throughout the four phases of the budgetary cycle: planning, adoption, implementation and audit.
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Geneva Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC 1972)provisions must be respected by all signatory countries, while non-signatory countries are required to refrain themselves from using those kind of weapons. BTWC allows signatory countries to possess and use reasonably small amounts of biological agents of war – BAW (grams) for defensive purpose of scientific research for obtaining new means of diagnosis, prevention and treatment. But living biological agents can be multiplied on demand in any amount, or toxins may be bio synthesized in any amount as specific ammunition for biological weapons.It means that the implementation of the Convention is a complex action and difficult to achieve in practice. In this situation, effective legal measures for the worldwide implementation of BTWC must be set, but concrete actions are more difficult to implement. UN, as an international body, is able, to enforce and to monitor the compliance with the Convention, being helped by other entities, such as the Security Council, the World Health Organization (WHO), etc.
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On the basis of the analysis of international program documents and modern scientific researches devoted to the actual issues of counteraction to corruption, the problematic aspects in the implementation of the formula «definition - measurement - counteraction to corruption», which are hindering the state anti-corruption policy in many countries of the world, and in particular in Ukraine, are grounded. The authors of the article argue that effective counteraction to corruption, regardless of national context, depends on the coherence of a three-component mechanism which includes the categorical design of corruption, development and taking into account the features of economic development, political history of the country, its institutional «heritage», ethnic and socio-cultural traditions of proper and adequate tools for measuring corruption, and, finally, the formation of an adequate anti-corruption policy. Unlike other similar studies, this article attempts to reveal the underlying causes of the failure of anti-corruption programs which are of theoretically, methodologically and nationally determined character. The authors investigate the problem of combating corruption in its global and general social dimension, and, at the same time, on the example of the Ukrainian experience, which proves the need to develop a sound methodology for studying the level of corruption, taking into account the national specificity.
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