We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The just war theory is one of the main approaches to the ethics of war. It is typically divided in two parts concerning the beginning of the war and fighting the war. In the paper we explain what the just war theory is and how it differs from the other approaches to the moral problems of war, such as pacifism and realism. We point out to its origins, functions and the role it has in the contemporary international law. We also point to its flaws and answer the question about its consequences, its true purpose and relation the theory has towards the possibility of establishing peace and overcoming the war and violence. The main problem of the paper is the moral acceptability of the characterization of some wars as „just“.
More...
The Islamic fundamentalism, the conspiracy theory, the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and Al-Shabaab, are leading topics for the 2020 Agenda also! Iran urges to reflections! Northern Africa is shaken by multiple attacks, Nigeria mourns its dead, Somalia lives in terror! The democracy in France has been attacked on several occasions! What is to be done? Without having the decision-making power in preventing and combating terrorism, our concerns are met through “The Islamic Jihad: From the Defeat of Terror and the Holy War to the Hope of Liberty”, which is intended, beyond all controversy, a call to profound introspection! In the hope that we will not determine destructive behaviors, we reiterate information of interest, in the hope that those who have the duty of defending peace shall strive unremittingly for a better future, through consensus and viable actions! Peace does not stick with blood! Peace shall be kept with wisdom!
More...
The paper contains an attempt to outline the causes and possible ways to solve the migration crisis that occurred in the European Union Member States in the first two decades of the XXI century. A critical assessment of myths and negative stereotypes accumulated around the wave of emigration has been made. There were discussed the consequences of adopting the Dublin Convention (1990) and its amendment (2003 and 2014), where the rules of procedure in the asylum process were defined. Attention was drawn to the directives laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers, which must be ensured in the EU Member States (for example, access to housing, health care and education). The guidelines defined by UNHCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, were also discussed. Statistical data collected by Eurostat and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) were used.
More...
The article discusses the current risks of a limited nuclear war and its consequences for humanity. It presents a critical analysis of the difference between the strategy of global destructive warfare as a result of the classical use of standard nuclear weapons on the one hand and the new political-military plan of a limited, small-scale nuclear war (without global expansion) on the other. The paper clarifies the problems associated with the new US strategy documents that are advancing a line of argument in favour of a limited nuclear war in the context of conflicts of political, corporate and military-technical interests in the global capitalism. It also analyses the background to the current state, i.e. the history of strategies of the possible nuclear war and potential actors of this kind of threat. It draws attention to the current real danger of locally waged limited nuclear warfare and its possible escalation on a global scale.
More...
With the likely formation of a new coalition in Kosovo in December 2019, many changes are emerging for the youngest state in Europe. Those parties that emerged from the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) will no longer be in power and President Hashim Thaçi can’t expect any support from the new government. For Vetëvendosje (VV) the reform of the judiciary and the fight against endemic corruption is a first priority order. VV is supported by many young Kosovars who are looking for a systemic change in their country and have lost trust in the old elites. The prospective coalition partner of VV, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), second winner of the snap elections on 6 October 2019, will focus on innovations in the education system, support for families and the fight against poverty. Entering the dialogue with Serbia at the beginning of 2020, the new government in Kosovo will stick to the old red lines and it will be very difficult to find any agreement that facilitates a recognition of Kosovo by Serbia. VV President Albin Kurti already excluded any change of borders or a land swap while Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić is excluding any solution without changing borders so far. With the first government participation of VV it becomes visible that the influence of the United States on Kosovo’s internal politics has decreased.
More...
Headlines from around the region: a young man on the rise; Hungarian public opinion; Air Serbia; a Russian banker’s fall from grace; and more charges for Bulgarian billionaire.
More...
In the summer of 2013, five years had passed since the occurance of the last large-scale armed conflict in the post-Soviet space when the Russian Federation, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, attacked the Republic of Georgia. This conflict is considered to be a continuation of the Russian military operations in the Caucasus region that began in December of 1994 with the outbreak of the war in Chechnya. For Russia, the purpose of these operations was to quell independence movements and restore its supremacy in this strategically important region. The Southern Caucasus has historically been a transit corridor for goods and people that connects Asia and Europe. For centuries, the region has also been a hotspot for the clashing geopolitical interests of three major regional powers: Russia, Turkey and Persia (modern Iran). People living in what is presently the territory of Georgia have witnessed and experienced the oppression of Russian, Turkish and Persian conquerors. As the only two Christian nations in the region Georgia and Armenia suffered especially under Muslim oppression. Many Russian historians claim that the extreme violence of the Persians, who invaded Georgia in 1795, compelled the local Czar Georgi XII to appeal to the Russian Czar Pavel I to allow Georgia to join the Russian Empire. Pavel I signed the decree on December 22nd, 18002. Under the command of General Lazarev, the Russian forces liberated Georgia from the Persians and it became a part of the Russian Empire.
More...
A culture of fear is precipitated by an emotional responce to uncertainty, instability and anxiety in social discourses and relationships. It is a powerful tool in the hands of ideologies stressing on conflict between Us and Others, notable of mention are nationalism, Marxism and religious fundamentalism. Fear can be an attractive political instrument for hiding motives, evoking irrational emotions and mobilizing people under the flag of populist gains. In international politics, the culture of fear is closely related to the Hobbesian political culture, which emphasizes a permanent state of war between international actors. Deviant actors may use the culture of fear in their resistance to the international system.
More...21 November 2013 until December 2015
The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy, Russia’s foreign policy, and the EU’s policy from 2013–2015.
More...The Ideology of Putin’s Russia and its Historical Roots
This chapter provides insight into the ways in which Russia and Ukraine position themselves in the international arena and how identity influences the way in which each country sees the other. The chapter begins with an overview of the state ideology of Putin’s Russia and its historical roots. Prevailing attitudes in Ukraine are then scrutinised against this historical background. Attention is primarily focussed on providing a military-historical retrospective into events that have contributed to the identity of the Ukrainian armed forces. Next, a comparison of the Russian and Ukrainian security narratives is also provided, including the question of whether or not Ukraine is still within Russia’s sphere of interest and how this issue is perceived by Russia and contested by Ukraine.
More...
The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances was signed on 5 December 1994. It was done in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and it provides security assurances by the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. The signatories promised to...
More...Russia’s Information Warfare Against Ukraine
This chapter presents research findings on Russian information activities against Ukraine based on the media analysis. The results of the interviews are presented in Chapter 6.
More...
The Regnum News Agency is a Russian non-governmental federal information agency, which gathers information through its own correspondents, affiliated agencies and partners. They focus on news from Russia and its so-called near abroad. According to LiveInternet.ru, the monthly audience is more than 4.3 million people. Vigen Akopyan, the former editor-in-chief of Regnum, has declared that the agency will oppose Russian investments in any country, whose politics are hostile to Russia or which support the rehabilitation of fascism.
More...
TV Zvezda is a nationwide Russian TV network owned by the Russian Ministry of Defence. Therefore, it was of special interest for this research project. Although primarily a TV channel, the study analysed the online news published on the TV Zvezda website. Altogether 142 articles were analysed.
More...
Ria Novosti is a nationwide Russian news agency, which originates from Sovinfrmbyro (1941–1961) and APN (Agentstvo Pechati Novosti 1961–1990). It has belonged to the state since 1993 and has been a part of the state corporation Russia Today since December 2013. The study analysed news items published online: 152 units for 2014 and 204 for 2015, with a total of 356 articles.
More...
This chapter presents the findings from 24 interviews carried out by Vladimir Sazonov in Kyiv and Igor Kopõtin in Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, and Eastern Ukraine (also in conflict zone) during May and June 2015. Vladimir Sazonov focused on civilians – media, political, and security experts, journalists and politicians, as well as advisors for the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, and experts in strategic communication and information policy. Igor Kopõtin interviewed mostly people with a military background – officers, volunteers, members of the Ukrainian army, the National University of Defence of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Defence – some of whom had participated in battles in the Donbass region (see Table 4 for more information).
More...
At the currents time Russia is not ready to enhance its military presence in Ukraine and follow the model of Crimea in East Ukraine. Russia’s military aid is used for keeping the conflict up in Donbass, maintaining separatist governments in Donetsk and Luhansk and destabilizing the Ukrainian state of to return Ukraine to the Russian sphere of influence.
More...
Wrong interpretation, revising and adapting of the past to modern ideologies has a long tradition, especially in Europe - the cradle of nationalism. The basis of nationalism is redrawing the truth and production the collective consciousness, on the basis of false, reconstructed or fictitious history, which should create an alibi for new forms of authoritarian rule and unity as well as new collective identity. Organized, state policy of the new memory, actual in the period of fascism, then during Stalinist communism, has resulted in the largest horrors remembered in the history of the world. In the years after the collapse of fascism and withering away of Stalinism, mass production of false history, the nationalist consciousness based on it, covered the eastern part of Europe, where a new nationalist regimes sought support for its rule. After an historical fate, at the Balkan, after the dissolution of a stable and (compared to other socialist countries) democratic and free state, the darkness became the thickest. Slobodan Milosevic's regime was an attempt to unite "the Serbian ethnic areas", no matter what they were, and create a state for all Serbs, it decided to make radical change of history, in which everything is turned upside down. The whole common history of the Yugoslav peoples was presented as a succession series of hatred and conflict, in which the Serbs have always been the victims of others. In that way it was built falsified history, based on the myth, legends, lies and new truths, as the basis and justification for new wars. A kind of strategy of forgetfulness and the production of compatible historie, it is constructed a new model of memory, based on which the fascists and fascist supporters were rehabilitated, from the quite obvious reasons. Great Serbia could be made only by ethnic cleansing and genocide, i.e. by eliminating undesirable, especially Bosniaks, who were the main obstacle to Great Serbian plans. Therefore, the new Great Serbian ideologists have taken the whole plans and practice of the Chetnik movement from the Second World War. Rehabilitation of the former fascist was confirmed as a justify of current and industry oblivion and mass production of a new history - as a continuation of another face of genocide.
More...
Since 2014 a key development emerging from the crisis in Ukraine has been the extensive use of various disinformation and propaganda techniques used by Russia against not only Ukraine, but also against the European Union (EU) member states and the West in general. While such campaigns were gradually acknowledged in Berlin, Brussels, and Washington, the reactions of the EU and NATO came with a long delay. This article focuses on the institutional and political (re)actions of the EU to the Russian disinformation campaign against the European Union member states and Eastern neighborhood countries after the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2014. The key developments are the launch of a special Eastern StratCom Task Force within the EEAS as a completely new institutional formation, the adoption of the Action Plan for Strategic Communication, and the increased financial support for the European Endowment for Democracy. Tracing the EU collective response indicates that there was a decision of the member states to favor an EU-level solution over a solely national one in the foreign policy arena. This article argues that these developments are indicative of the Europeanization of the foreign policies of the member states, which is in itself a remarkable development given the altered European security environment.
More...