Infrastructural connectivity of the South Caucasus. A chance for a community of interests?

Author(s): Mariusz Maszkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has shown the world the anachronistic nature of the problems faced by the politicians, armies and citizens of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, this real and grim conflict that continues to cause tension in the region contrasts greatly with the hopes of many for peace and well-being. The prospects for development, prosperity and peaceful coexistence between the peoples of the Caucasus are still overshadowed by territorial and ethnic conflict. Despite this, they do not match the aspirations and dreams of the societies present in this region.

A new corridor, a new impetus

Author(s): Ali Hajizade / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

The South Caucasus has serious potential to become a full-fledged logistics hub of regional significance. While opposition to developing a new corridor remains, the potential benefits for all countries in the South Caucasus and beyond will outweigh any costs or perceived risks.

The South Caucasus after the Second Karabakh War

Author(s): Valery Chechelashvili / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

The trilateral co-operation format – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – has inexhaustible potential. Of course, not all external players claiming special interests in the region will be happy about this development. However, the time has come to encourage a radical increase in the culture of co-operation and pursue more ambitious goals. This will ultimately lead to the formation of a common vision of regional development as a space belonging to all three of these countries.

Understanding the Kremlin’s logic after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Author(s): Volodymyr Kopchak / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

The Kremlin’s rationale for helping end the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict also explains its attitude towards transportation infrastructure projects that have appeared as a result of the ceasefire agreement. By understanding the Kremlin’s strategy, as well as the subsequent challenges and risks, other states may be encouraged to develop their own effective counterstrategies.

The Zangezur corridor. An Azerbaijani perspective

Author(s): Murad Muradov / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

The opening of the Zangezur corridor will play an important role in the security of Azerbaijan’s newly liberated lands. It would cement the implementation of the November agreement and signal that the former status quo is over. This would subsequently help Baku to pursue its most ambitious undertaking in years – rebuilding the war-torn Karabakh region.

The position of Georgia within the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Author(s): Victor Kipiani / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

Georgia has great interest in advancing peaceful and neighbourly relations with the other countries of the South Caucasus. Now, there is an opportunity to strengthen ties among the three countries. However, a realistic approach towards these relations is needed to achieve modest success in the short and medium-terms.

Vladimir the historian. Putin’s political revision of Ukrainian history

Author(s): Joshua Kroeker / Language(s): English Issue: 06 (49)/2021

For roughly a half a decade now, there has been a radicalising shift in the Kremlin’s understanding of its relations with Ukraine. As Ukraine continues to follow its own path, Vladimir Putin assumes an evermore extreme position that Ukraine, its peoples, language and culture simply do not exist. For Putin, Ukraine has always been and will always be a part of Russia.

Küba Füze Krizi’nde Türkiye’nin Rolünün Postkolonyal Perspektiften Değerlendirilmesi

Author(s): Ufuk Alkan / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2021

In traditional Western narrative of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Turkey is featured as the place where the USA placed its Jupiter missiles. In this narrative, while the main actors of the crisis are the USA and the USSR, Turkey is a country in the Western Bloc in the Cold War environment and ‘naturally’ supports the policies of the USA against the USSR. The aim of this study is to evaluate the Cuban Missile Crisis from a postcolonial perspective and to reveal to what extent postcolonial thought can listen to the voices of others like Turkey in the Western-oriented IR discipline.

UKRAINA W SZAREJ STREFIE BEZPIECZEŃSTWA

Author(s): Andrzej Zapałowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 38/2021

More than a decade ago, work on the security grey zone strategy began in manycountries. Currently, this then theoretical concept is being put into practice in relation tomany states. The very concept of security grey zones is defined as places whereinternational rules do not fully apply. The vulnerability of such an area to externalcenters of power is also increasing. This allows many states to resort to strategies ofbalancing on the edge of international acceptability of non-armed action. Statesoperating in another country's territory, which is treated as a grey area, sequentially usea whole spectrum of methods to create crises. For the United States of America, the veryphenomenon of the grey zone is defined as a strategy of malign influence, moderndeterrence, election interference, or addiction through debt. The main purpose of thearticle is not only to define the problem of the functioning of grey security zones on theworld map, but also to indicate, on the example of Ukraine, how the mentioned conceptis implemented.

Rusya’nın 2000 Sonrası ‘Geniş Karadeniz’ Politikasının Savunmacı Realist Bakışla Analizi

Author(s): Oktay Bingöl / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 72/2021

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia spent the its first ten years as an independent country dealing with its many multidimensional domestic problems and restructuring the state. When Putin came to power in 2000, a new period began, together with an eye-catching foreign policy. The Russian military intervention in Georgia in 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 alongside subsequent developments have all fueled discussions in academic circles about Russia's foreign policy. The dominant point of view in these debates – especially in Western countries – argues that Russia is a revisionist state that seeks to revamp its former glory, maximize its power, and becoming a regional hegemon throughout the Wider Black Sea. Another approach argues that Russia tends to seek sufficient power due to the perceived security threats to its very survival hailing from the West (especially from the USA and NATO), and that it is trying to maintain in status quo within its immediate environs. In terms of international relations theories about foreign policy behaviour, the first group overlaps with the assumptions of offensive realism, while the second group overlaps with defensive realism. This article will analyze Russia’s foreign policy towards the Wider Black Sea through the lens of defensive realism.

Sırp Milliyetçiliğinin Kuramsal Temelleri

Author(s): Kürşat Korkmaz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 71/2021

The Balkans have been on the agenda of international relations and the international community in recent years. Wars and massacres have taken place in this post-Cold War region of the world, and have had a negative impact how people perceive it. Scholars often use the terms “Balkan” and “Balkanization” interchangeably to express the birth of new nations and independence in light of any number of events. Balkanization can also refer to confusion occurring in other parts of the world. We therefore must examine the Serbs, as they are one reason why the region is remembered the way it is after the Cold War, and because they had ignited the wick of the events. Serbian nationalism structurally has the potential to change regional dynamics periodically – hence the need to examine it the conceptual level. This study aims to do exactly that. In order to achieve that aim, we have drawn from various approaches and theories from [academic] literature on nationalism literature, and will thus analyse Serbian nationalism within the frameworks of religion, language, and history.

İkinci Dünya Savaşına Kadar Türk Boğazları Jeopolitiği

Author(s): Furkan Kaya / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 71/2021

Throughout world history, the Turkish Straights have fallen under the control of many a powerful state. They moreover are significant in that they physically separate Asia from Europe whilst conversely politically uniting them. Controlling Istanbul through by taking control over the Turkish Straights has been ultimate political dream of countless nations due to its unique geopolitical position. The Turkish domination of the Turkish Straights as well as the Marmara and Black Seas during both the conquest of Istanbul in 1453 and the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774 contributed greatly to the Ottoman State becoming a world empire. One of the most important reasons behind the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the break out of First World War (in 1914) was the desire of occupying forces to acquire the Turkish Straights. The new Turkey rejected the Treaty of Serves that had been imposed on the Ottoman State. In doing so, it reached a significant number of its National Pact goals upon signing the Lausanne Peace Treaty after it won the [Turkish] War of Independence. However, the idea of an international commission with the Treaty would manage the Turkish Straights posed threatened Turkey’s national sovereignty. Hence, following the Montreux Convention in 1936 (a great diplomatic mission in Turkey), the Turkish Straights was taken (back) under Turkish sovereignty. In doing so, this also forbade anyone from occupying Turkey during the Second World War. The Turkish Straits have played a key role in Turkey’s success in pursuing a policy of balance between warring states and staying out of the war.

93 Harbi’nde Macarların Osmanlı Devleti’ne Desteği

Author(s): Ferdi Çiftçioğlu,Erika Verešová / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 71/2021

The Ottomans and Hungarians share a long history together. Beyond historical kinship ties between the Turks and the Huns, their relationship had reached its peak when the Russians dared to threaten both in 19th century as a result of their desire to expand their territory. Alas, the Hungarian’s lost the War of Freedom to the Russians, and the pioneers of the struggle took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. During the 93 [Day] War, the Ottomans – who had fought against Russia many times in the 19th century – fell into difficult situation on all fronts; the Hungarians came to their rescue. Their support was monumental: they sent both medical and financial aid to the ever-weakening army. They organized demonstrations in various countries to inform the European public about what was going on, and they wrote motivational poetry and songs in order to boost Ottoman soldiers’ morale. Some Hungarians had even offered join the Ottoman military. All of this rapprochement played a major role both sides building a common future together (Turanism).

Projektowanie scenariusza duńskiego oraz norweskiego wojskowego zaangażowania w Afryce

Author(s): Grzegorz Rdzanek / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The aim of the article is to develop and propose effective scenario-building methods regarding the scale and nature of Danish and Norwegian military involvement in selected regions of Africa (Western Africa, Sahel, Horn of Africa) over the next 3–4 years. The adopted time frames result from the planning cycles of defence and security strategy of the analysed Nordic states. The subject of analyses will be the security support provided by Denmark and Norway for selected African countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria) through two forms of using the armed forces. Participation of Danish and Norwegian military contingents in crisis management and peace support activities – as first. Secondly, direct military assistance addressed to selected countries in order to establish national and regional security systems and rebuild defence capabilities will be reviewed. This study will aim to develop an optimal forecasting methodology of future Danish and Norwegian influence on chosen African countries through the use of military instruments over a specified time horizon. The construction of optimal methods for scenario design requires knowledge about the doctrine of international involvement of the armed forces, action strategies, procedures for the selection of forces, and military assets designated to achieve the assumed goals. The appropriate scenarios methodology shall include aspects of both states' future foreign military policy in selected regions of Africa. The following are the scale of involvement, the instruments of influence, strategic and tactical goals, the military means, institutional levels of cooperation, direct benefits from protecting both Nordic states' vital interests in a given region.

Recenzja książki: Justyna Stochaj. (2020). Ochrona ludności i obrona cywilna w systemie bezpieczeństwa narodowego. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Difin, ss. 160.

Author(s): Katarzyna Las / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Wstęp

Author(s): Piotr Mickiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

CHINA’S ENCOUNTER WITH WEST IN THE 19TH CENTURY: POWER RELATIONS

Author(s): Oktay KÜÇÜKDEĞİRMENCİ / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2021

This article aims to examine power relations between China and West in the 19th century, in particular, from the first Opium War (1839-1842) to Self-strengthening Movement (1864-1884) since when Europeans, for the first time, came to China with new technologies, armaments, and ideas, and told them what is good for Chinese, Chinese were bewildered because they did not know how to respond. China had lived under its sense of superiority as mandate of heaven with its neighbours for a long centuries. They had not seen people like westerners before. They were complacent with regards to foreign world, and did not keep up with contemporary world conditions. Thus, when they encountered superior power of westerners throughout the 19th century, they failed to response successfully, and started to lose everything they believed and had for centuries. In Chinese respond to West, two strategies were put forth, which one ise a sort of external balancing, but not via military alliance with another country, but through the concept of most favoured nation clause by inviting other western countries to China in order to use “one barbarian country to another barbarian country”. The other strategy China utilized is a kind of internal balancing by menas of self-strengthening movement.

Vukovar – memory conflicts as an obstacle to Serbo-Croatian reconciliation

Author(s): Magdalena Rekść / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

30 years after the tragic events in Vukovar, the Serb and Croatian communities live side by side, each cultivating their memory of their own tragedy and their own victims. The peaceful reintegration, that Croats are proud of, did not go hand in hand with building an atmosphere of reconciliation. No wonder then, that Vukovar is a model example of a divided city, where the mental divisions and psychological barriers affect its politics and everyday life. It seems that such a situation is favourable to politicians in Belgrade and Zagreb. One gets the impression that, as in 1991, Vukovar is becoming a victim of great politics and the clash of Serbian and Croatian nationalism.

Ante Gotovina case: an error of law which led to innocence?

Author(s): Wiktor Hebda / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 30 years ago still has a substantial impact on the post-Yugoslav countries which proclaimed independence. Bearing in mind that the breakup also generated a military conflict, e.g. in Croatia, the restoration of Serbian-Croatian relations remains problematic. One of the challenges is passing a fair judgment on people responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established for this reason in particular. Ante Gotovina – a Croatian general, was one of those indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in connection with the military operation “Oluja” during which some heinous acts of crime took place. Gotovina played a clear and primary role in this operation, and therefore his actions were the main count of the indictment, firstly, for the prosecution and then for the Trial Chamber of ICTY. However, the sentence of 24 years imprisonment was never carried out following a successful appeal. The Appeals Chamber did not uphold the verdict of the Trial Chamber owing to a serious legal error and, consequently, it acquitted Gotovina of all the charges. This issue became yet another source of Serbian-Croatian conflict in connection with the most important people held responsible for the crimes committed in 1991-1995

North Atlantic Treaty Organization towards the war in Syria 2011-2015

Author(s): Jakub Olchowski / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The conflict in Syria that started in 2011 has quickly evolved from a local uprising inspired by the events of the so-called “Arab Spring” into a multidimensional and complicated conflict of a civil war character, with many diverse participants and a very significant religious factor apart from political and socioeconomic reasons. Furthermore, the conflict has become internationalized: more and more external parties have gotten involved in it with a view to furthering or safeguarding their own interests. A vast majority of these actors were states (as far as legal entities are concerned). In the context of their activity, operations of non-state entities, such as international organizations, were rather limited and focused on social and humanitarian issues. This also pertains to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Evolving from a typical defensive alliance towards a security organization and, since the end of the Cold War, consistently operating outside the area covered by the Treaty (understood as the territories of member states), NATO as an autonomous entity has not taken any consistent, coordinated, or decisive actions during the first years of the Syrian conflict. This is due to both the specific features of this international organization and the determinants of the international environment with their dynamics.