Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Thursday, 22 October 2020
Regional headlines: cluster bombs in Karabakh; Pole gets asylum in Norway; Ukrainian elections; EU and Kosovo at cross purposes; and a gold strike in Siberia.
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Regional headlines: cluster bombs in Karabakh; Pole gets asylum in Norway; Ukrainian elections; EU and Kosovo at cross purposes; and a gold strike in Siberia.
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Regional headlines: Shocking result for Zelenskiy’s party; Azerbaijan captures Karabakh town; Moldova gears for presidential election; a strike in Belarus; and ex-Riga mayor might be running out of luck.
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RESERACH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to present the conditions and course of presidential crises from the point of view of authorizing legalism and legalizing political leadership. An additional goal is to determine the scale of the impact that the so called The “Paris Agreement” of 1939. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The author also intends to confirm or question the hypothesis according to which in the authoritarian system of power it was not possible to legitimize the actual political authority and take this authority to the highest office in the state without authorization of political decisions on the part of the person actually exercising control over this office. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In political science, the issue of the functioning of the authorities of the Republic of Poland after the German and Soviet aggression in September 1939 remains almost absent. The reasoning is based on the description of the ability to maintain the legal continuity of the government and the president after leaving the country. RESERACH RESULTS: It has been proven that the political activities under taken in 1939–1954, as well as the political behavior of the main actors, directly influenced the consolidation of the authoritarian order. Paradoxically, the more efforts were made to legitimize and sanction the position of people enjoying universal authority, the more it led to an authoritative interpretation of the legal foundations on which refugee legalism was based. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMENDATIONS: On this occasion, a research postulate should be formulated to investigate the impact of the dispute over the legitimacy of authority on the political capacity of the independence refugees. The implementation of this research postulate goes beyond the scope of this article.
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The “societal security” concept rooted in Copenhagen’s School works currently bears different approaches and uses. Two paradigms of understanding are specific to its employment – an “identity-based” one and a functional one. While the first see “identity” as a referent object - and societal threats are defined accordingly, the second refers to the ability of a society to function, being thus subject to various threats. The current paper examines how “societal security” is conceptualized in Romania’s National Defence Strategy and Hungary’s National Security Strategy (documents issued in 2020) aiming to identify as well potential sources of friction resulting from Hungary’s extensive use of the concept “Hungarian political nation” – which includes the Hungarian national minority in Romania. The research builds on the existing knowledge about the conceptualization of societal security in policy documents and academic literature of states in the Baltic Sea Region, where either one or the other meaning is predominant or substituted with associated concepts. The contents of the strategies were qualitatively analyzed through a hybrid coding approach (first deductive and then inductive), using a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis package (MAXQDA) to enhance the validity of the findings. The coding process was based on various definitions given to societal security and its associated concepts in Copenhagen’s School understanding, the “Nordic” perspective, and the academic literature of states in the Baltic Sea Region.
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During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet system of labor force mobilization functioned in extreme tension. At the same time, the existence of an extensive and multi-faceted system of forced labor in the country inevitably made the GULAG an obligatory element in the mobilization process and dramatically increased the role of various categories of special contingent in the general balance of labor resources. One of the users of forced labor during the war was the fishing industry, the development of which was included in the list of state priorities by a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 6, 1942. The article examines the mechanisms for the implementation of forced migration for the needs of a particular department (People’s Commissariat of the Fishing Industry) and determines their significance for recipient regions as exemplified by North-Western Siberia consisting of the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets national districts of the Omsk (since August 1944 — Tyumen) region. The article demonstrates that the implementation of government decisions led to an increase in the significance of the department and to strengthening of the role of the People’s Commissariat of the Fishing Industry in the socio-economic development of North-Western Siberia. As a result of special resettlements, North-Western Siberia acquired the characteristics of a mono-specialized territory, which was “under the care” of one department. Nevertheless, the emergence of such a mono-region did not reduce the potential for interdepartmental conflicts and did not bring about the planned indicators, thus the goal of state policy, in this part, was not achieved.
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The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War forced the Russian authorities to change their strategy: instead of territorial expansion, the main task was to settle the Russian-speaking population in the Russian Far East and to ensure the border area security. For this purpose, large infrastructure projects were financed from the state budget during the interwar period. One of the most famous was the Amur railroad, the construction of which, as in the case with the Trans-Siberian Railway, significantly accelerated the colonization of the vast but sparsely populated territories of the Amur Region. In official publications and government discussions, the role of the road was associated not only with the achievement of military and strategic goals, but also with the economic development of Siberia and the Far East as a whole. At the same time, the establishment of a coordinating center for Far Eastern colonization became urgent in view of a large-scale attempt to solve the agrarian question in Central Russia. Participation of the members of the unified Government — the Council of Ministers — in the development of these measures implied taking into account all inter-agency interests. At the end of 1908, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers could only formulate general wishes on the organization of theoretical (scientific work) and practical (resettlement) aspects in the Far East. These proposals did not consider the specifics of lawmaking in the Duma monarchy. Attempts of the Main Administration for Land Management and Agriculture headed by A.V.Krivoshein to monopolize the subject of resettlement encountered sharp opposition from the most influential part of the government. The decision taken in 1909 to establish the Committee on the settlement of the Far East and to organize the Amur expedition was a compromise which was not predetermined by P.A.Stolypin’s original plans.
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The sphere of grassroots and civil activism became highly politicized before the 2015 elections. The introduction of the new policies has resulted in higher levels of mobilizations, both supporting and resisting the new policies of the PiS government. For instance, Poland has switched from a country with the highest acceptance rate for refugees in the EU to the one with the lowest rate within around a year sparking a number of anti-migrant and anti-refugee mobilizations and at the same time fueled the growth of initiatives opposing the trend. The narrative about masses of refugees in Poland and at its borders threatening various aspects of Polish culture, civilization, and identity started to keep heat in the bed and have provoked numerous intended and unintended consequences, political and social, so as further campaigns against LGBT community. In this paper I reflect on the development of the anti-fascist and anti-racist movements in Poland in the face of structural changes that are a result of the political shift initiated in 2015.
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During the interwar period, the German interest in the Ukrainian issue remained constant and interfered with the Polish attitude and Romania's positioning towards the same common subject: geographical proximity to Ukraine and the existence of an independent Ukrainian state. Germany always looked to the east, showed aggression and sought to capitalize on the readiness of the Ukrainian emigration to be engaged in any possible approach that would have contributed to the unification of the Ukrainian population. For this purpose, plans were developed that also aimed at encouraging Ukrainian separatist movements.
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The aim of the study is to determine the main indicators of social instability and forms of its manifestation in the modern world. The elements of scientific novelty of this work are that the article comprehensively analyzes the main signs of social instability in global and regional contexts, shows their essential relationship. The research methodology is based on a complex combination of philosophical (dialectical, axiological) and general scientific methods of studying the problem of social instability in the modern world, including synergetic, comparative and concretization methods. Social turbulence has resulted from intensifying geopolitical confrontations and “economic wars” between the world’s leading countries, including the United States and China.
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Numerous scholars have studied the connection between urbanization and economic growth for particular nations or regions. In their research, urbanization is considered both a cause and a consequence of the process of economic development. By continuing to experience significant economic growth, Albania has recently set itself apart from the other Balkan nations. Urban areas, particularly those that have expanded substantially, have seen the repercussions of such a transformation – both positive and negative – in the economic and spatial realms as well as in people’s daily lives. Although there is a considerable correlation between urbanization and economic growth in other countries, Albania has yet to address the question of whether urbanization drives economic growth or vice versa – they are independent of each other. The analysis of the connection between urbanization and economic growth in the Albanian reality in the years 1984–2020 is the main goal of the article. World Bank data for the years 1984–2020 were used for this purpose. The methods used are the regression analysis and the Granger causality test.
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The question of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland has sparked a discussion in the scientifi c and journalistic discourse. Researchers focus on their future plans and problems with adaptation. The question of war trauma experienced by refugees since the outbreak of war is ignored. The conducted study aims to demonstrate the sources of war trauma and the levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among war refugees who have come to Poland. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect the research material. The data were collected through computer--assisted web interviews (CAWI) carried out on a purposive sample of 737 refugees living in Poland. The research results indicate that the refugees are affected by a multi-dimensional war trauma intensifi ed by separation from their families and friends who stayed in Ukraine and a feeling of guilt about them, as well as high uncertainty regarding their future in Poland. The exact measurement of PTSD using the RHS-15 scale indicates that 70% of the respondents display symptoms of PTSD, and 66% of them have high levels of psychological distress.
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The issue of migration and migrants has been institutionalized since the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire established commercial, political, economic and social interaction and communication not only with Muslims but also with non-Muslims, both through the people living in the Ottoman lands and the people living in the border countries and has introduced various regulations on these over the decades. At the end of the First World War and during the construction process of Republican Turkey, policy about migration and migrants was brought to the agenda during the Lausanne Conference yet. The delegation participating in the conference held discussions on this issue in Lausanne. In these negotiations, there are also Swiss officials, who were not actually involved in the conference. Discussions about the Swiss, who are represented since the Ottoman Era in smaller numbers than citizens of other European countries, has started during this conference, and the subsequent process was determined by the foreign policy principles of the Ankara government after Lausanne. Switzerland appears to have adopted at a later stage the new process that includes the recognition of Ankara as the capital, the new government's full independence in the international arena and that is based on the understanding of fundamental and official treaty texts than Germany and Austria. Trade and Residence agreements for Turkish citizens going to Switzerland or Swiss citizens coming from Switzerland lasted for a long time because of this reason but signed on its reciprocity merits between the two countries ultimately.
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Since the start of the war, in February 2022, almost three million Ukrainians have crossed the border to Romania, out of which 146.507 are currently registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes. Such a massive inflow of people in need of assistance and protection demands an institutional organized response, which has been provided by the Romanian state, in cooperation with civil society, and benefitting from the support of international organizations. The public-private model of cooperation employed in this response has been unprecedented, starting with the mobilization of Romanian citizens in offering housing and food to the refugees, and continuing with the involvement of non-governmental organizations. This article aims to assess the systemic reaction to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Romania and to investigate the role of systemic cooperation in providing this reaction. Based on data available from the main public institutions involved in this response, combined with information provided by non-governmental organizations and international organizations, the study evaluates, from the system theory perspective, the types of cooperation and collaboration that emerged and their effectiveness in this situation.
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The study aims to clarify how the concept of housing Bulgarian refugees was implemented in the context of the 1926 Refugee Loan Act under the auspices of the UN. It analyzes the new means proposed by the government of Andrey Lyapchev (1926–1931) for the realization of the concept of permanent accommodation of the Bulgarian refugees on the territory of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. It also presents criticisms and alternative proposals of the government project, which were opposed by the parliamentary opposition, mainly in the face of the Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union. An attempt has been made to assess the validity and effectiveness of the views of the government and the opposition on resolving the Bulgarian refugee issue in the specific historical situation of the mid-1920s.
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The war in Ukraine is the third asymmetric shock that the European Union has experienced in the last two decades, after the 2008 financial and economic crisis, the following Eurozone crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Russia’s and Ukraine’s shares in the global trade and production are relatively small, they are important suppliers of basic products, specifically food and energy. Therefore, the trade consequences of the war for the European Union, Ukraine’s important trading partner, deserve special attention. The war also disrupts trade relations between the EU and Russia. The EU’s direct trade sanctions are limited to specific sectors, such as oil, coal, arms, dual-use goods, as well as the aviation and space industry. However, financial sanctions, particularly the SWIFT ban imposed on seven Russian banks, increase the costs of commercial transactions considerably. This paper aims to present the trade effects of the war in Ukraine from the European Union’s, Member States’ and, in particular, Poland’s perspective. This refers not only to the trade creation and diversion effect, but also to changes in the structure of the EU’s trade regarding the main groups of goods. These effects will vary depending on direct trade links, dependence on Russian energy and susceptibility to rising energy prices. Given an extensive range of parties involved and issues covered by the research, this paper focuses only on the main aspects of the problem.
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The paper analyses the Polish government’s actions to support Polish studies units abroad and examines the relationships between these units and institutions in Poland. It aims to understand the forms and scope of support offered to Polish studies units and to explain why public diplomacy actions also target the Polish diaspora. The analysis is based on official documents related to public diplomacy and Polish diaspora policy, as well as the results of an empirical study conducted among representatives of Polish institutions responsible for promoting the Polish image abroad and representatives of Polish studies units. The conclusions indicate the heterogeneity of these units and differences in support for units in the East and the West. In the case of units operating in former Soviet Union countries, Polish diaspora policy dominates, aiming to maintain connections between local Polish communities and Poland. In the West, support for Polish studies units stems from both Polish diaspora policy and public diplomacy.
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The changing character of diasporas and states’ politics intersect with new challenges in the policymaking process. This study aims to investigate the priorities and hardships of the diaspora education policies in Poland and Lithuania. The study applies the three-dimensional approach (Lesińska, Popyk 2021) to study diaspora policy and draws on qualitative research with the diaspora state institution representatives in the two countries. This paper compares the role of diaspora education policy in a broader policy context, alongside presenting the challenges, namely “socio-demographic”, “methodological”, “political” and “financial”, that state institutions face while ensuring education for the young members of diasporas. It contributes to the scholarship on diaspora policies studies by presenting how state institutions approach and govern the relationships with young diasporas through ensuring education and support social and cultural life of diaspora schools.
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The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) in its eight decades of history frequently collaborated with organizations of other ethnic groups in the U.S., particularly with academic and cultural organizations of East and Central Europe diasporas. Among them strong ties have been established with Ukrainian organizations, especially the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences. The paper describes levels and forms of institutional cooperation. It tries to answer the following questions: was this collaboration accidental or rather resulting from PIASA’s long-term vision and goals? In what fields partners managed to build joint representation?
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These emigrants created a number of diasporas inhabiting the border zones with the USSR. The Soviet authorities treated these communities as hostile, and the hermetic nature of the Soviet border meant that contact between the diasporas and the country of origin was negligible. With thecollapse of the USSR and the opening of the borders of the diaspora, they began to play an essential role in the so-called ethnic revival of minorities in Russia. The incorporation of previously demonized, disloyal, and hostile frontier communities required the introduction of new discourses and representations in local public histories. On the example of the Buryat diaspora in China, the article shows the process of including diasporas in the field of ethnic politics in Siberia and negotiating their social status in contemporary Russia.
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