AFGHANISTAN UNDER TALIBAN: A NEW REGIME POSES A THREAT TO INTERNATIONAL STABILITY

Author(s): Valeri Modebadze / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The purpose of this study was to see whether the Taliban regime poses a threat to the international community. The research primarily examined the threats that the formation of a theocratic regime in Afghanistan poses to neighboring countries and the international community. With regards to research methods, a document analysis method was used to obtain valid information and to analyze and describe the complex situation in Afghanistan. A wide array of documents and scholarly articles were analyzed to obtain reliable and objective information. This research revealed that the Taliban has not changed at all and still rules Afghanistan with medieval methods and strategies. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the economic situation has deteriorated considerably and people face severe hardship. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of Afghans want to leave their homeland and migrate to the West. The Taliban violates constantly human rights and discriminates against women, ethnic and religious minorities. The Taliban has transformed Afghanistan into a narco-state. Neighboring countries fear that Afghanistan might become a hotbed of terrorism and extremism again.

Книги 2021

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 43/2021

Selected bibliography in the field of Bulgarian Studies published in the current year.

ИЛЮСТРАЦИИ

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 19/2021

ИЛЮСТРАЦИИ

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 20/2021

THE POST-TRUTH PHENOMENON INFILTRATING THE US POLITICAL SYSTEM, MEDIA, AND POPULACE: THE CRITICAL THINKING ANALYSIS ABOUT DONALD TRUMP’S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

Author(s): Evi Aryati Arbay,Ari Santoso Widodo / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Donald J. Trump, one of the 2016 US presidential candidates, is thought to have benefited from political fact-doctoring in his attempt to diminish his adversary's reputation using the post-truth phenomena. This research aimed to identify and analyze post-truth phenomena that infiltrated the political system, media, and the American people during Donald J. Trump's leadership. This study used a qualitative approach with a critical thinking analysis method. The findings found that individual rationality's post-truth disrupted and then directed to online information impulses, in which people tended to seek information that supported their own opinions, particularly on issues connected to Donald J. Trump's leadership in all sectors of policy, including irrelevant facts or reality and the use of language increasingly exploited by hyperbole without a clear basis reference.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF SOFT POWER DIPLOMACY: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF AFGHANS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT INDIA

Author(s): Mohammad Reyaz,Sabir Ahamed / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Before the Taliban came back to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, India and Afghanistan had cordial bilateral relations and were often described as great friends. Since 2002, India had helped build several infrastructure projects as part of its promised development assistance program of over $2 billion (later increased to $3 billion). Considering India’s investments in Afghanistan, the goodwill it enjoyed among common Afghans was understandable. However, it would be wrong to imply that these unique, multifaceted bilateral relations between the two countries were simply due to India's helping hand. This research paper is one of its kind attempt to explain the perceptions Afghans had about India based on the field survey done in Afghanistan in 2019. Using responses of over 321 Afghan participants, the paper attempts to quantitatively analyze the goodwill and positive vibes that India enticed among Afghans. However, many Afghans felt that India did not do enough during the crisis in August 2021. Based on the survey and the general perceptions of Afghans in the aftermath of the return of the Taliban, this paper argues that the soft power investments in Afghanistan helped India in its nation-branding, making it attractive and creating goodwill. However, New Delhi lacked the will to act smartly and hence did not get the desired strategic influences due to ‘soft power behavior’

Потребяване на култура онлайн

Author(s): Ivaylo Ditchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 11/2022

The digital world has incorporated all previous forms of communication: today we read online, listen to music, visit virtual museums and so on. But does cultural consumption via the new meta-media remain the same? The following observations are the result of a seminar with students of cultural studies. I am discussing the changes in the experiencing of the high 'culture of the soul' (Cicero), not everyday digital practices.

Рецензия за сборника „Въпросът за справедливостта. Съдените журналисти в България”

Author(s): Maria Neikova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 11/2022

The edited volume 'The Question of Justice. The Prosecuted Journalists in Bulgaria' (University Press 'St. Kliment Ohridski', 2022) with interviews, articles and commentaries, edited by Prof. Snezhana Popova and Assoc. Prof. Zhana Popova, is a valuable contemporary chronicle that fits into the history of Bulgarian media and journalism.

Рецензия на „Срещу човешкото: антиутопичният жанр в литературата на XX век“

Author(s): Alexander Popov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 11/2022

Chavdar Parushev’s monograph is a study of the literary genre of anti-utopia, situating the latter in a complex web of mutual determination together with the genres of utopia, science fiction and satire. The central analytical instrument developed in this study is the so-called ‘Plato’s lens’ which makes it possible to center thought about these genres around the relation between subject and state. Thus the development in time of new forms and technologies for relating subject and state leads to new developments in the anti-utopian genre, which becomes a way to think about the crises of producing human meaning. The monograph traces many crises of this kind, including examples from history which have overtaken fiction. It thus demonstrates the important uses of anti-utopia, in times of accelerating change in what it means to be human.

Книги 2021 – 2022

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 44/2022

Selected bibliography in the field of Bulgarian Studies published in the current year

Периодика 2021 – 2022

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 44/2022

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2015Content of the main Bulgarian scientific journals for the current year in linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography, archaeology and art studies.

По следите на благодарствената памет, или още веднъж за „българските“ чехи

Author(s): Vladimir Penchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article deals with the role of Czechs in Bulgaria in the decades after its Liberation in 1878. The author argues that the Czech presence in the country was substantial and clearly visible, so it had a significant imprint on the development of Bulgarian society at the time. This might be the explanation for the tens of “places of memory” and objectified “grateful memory” for the “Bulgarian” Czechs, expressed in the names of settlements, streets, schools, mountain peaks, etc. Other examples include monuments and memorial plaques, as well as works of art dedicated to outstanding Czech people such as Konstantin Jireček, the Škorpil brothers, the Prošek brothers, Antonin Kolář, Antonin Novak, Josef Schnitter, Libor Bayer, and many others.

Социокултурни изражения на съвременната трудова миграция от България в Италия

Author(s): Vladimir Domozetski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article investigates contemporary labour migration of Bulgarians to Italy. An important analytical instrument for drawing a complete picture of the Bulgarian presence in the host country are the research perspectives: “from above, generalized” or “close and detailed”. The sociocultural expressions of migration are interpreted on the basis of in-depth interviews, in which sharing personal experience is of major importance. The personal experience of different groups of Bulgarian migrants is viewed as a source of information for the degree of their integration and adaptation. Some comments are suggested on the peculiarities of the communication between the interviewees and the researcher. The author problematizes notions and images of the Bulgarians in Italy through the lens of employment types and through auto and hetero stereotypes that are delineated in interviews and free conversations. Another subject of attention are the questions about the visibility of Bulgarian migrants in Italian society. The results of the study demonstrate that the Bulgarians are well adapted to the living conditions in Italy. At the same time, they do not always feel presented clearly enough in the host society.

Музикални прояви в религиозната практика на турци сунити от Южна България

Author(s): Behrin Shopova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

This contribution explores the music performance during the reading of a barely known and insufficiently studied life of the Prophet Muhammad, İpsala'lı Ebu'l-Hayr Mevlidi, better known as Mustafa Mevlidi. That life is used in the Mevlid rituals in the region of Krumovgrad and in some villages near the town of Haskovo. In order to present in fullness the specific local characteristics of the music connected to religious practice in the studied region, the author describes in detail the peculiarities of the music in the cami practice. The main characteristics of the ritual are delineated: its structure, the occasions on which it takes place, and the way of performing it. In the course of analysis of the musical material, which has been recorded in the region of Krumovgrad, the author also adds musical examples from the Mevlid ritual among Sunni Turks from other parts of Bulgaria. The main fieldwork material utilized in the study has been personally collected by the author between 2010 and 2021.

„Етничният синдром“ четвърт век по-късно – едно научно откровение за народа, паметта и историята

Author(s): Elya Tsaneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

For almost three decades now, there is an ongoing, but also inconsistent search for a new conceptual framework for the study of ethnicities and identities. Against this background, the article offers an interpretation of a fundamental monographic text on this subject from the recent past, a contemporary evaluation of a book from the arsenal of ethnic/national dialectic theory. Written by an insightful connoisseur of culture and history, the book presented some innovative and provocative ideas about the relationship and the dynamic combination of the most important phenomena and characteristics of the ethnonational process. The author shares some thoughts about the ways in which these ideas can be interpreted from the point of view of today’s methodological explorations.

Транснационални наследства: селският дом и историята в Югоизточна Европа

Author(s): François Ruegg / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

Paradoxically enough, our present times combine conservation with the destruction of architectural heritage. The preservation of this heritage is closely related to the foundation of the nation state and serves to show the “national genius” embodied by the peasant. Simultaneously, the different disciplines that study the issues of architectural heritage show that there is a tendency of mutual disregard. Nevertheless, the transnational concept of the rural home in Southeast Europe (mainly Romania and former Yugoslavia) which I have studied and documented in the 1970-s, displays similar features in close geographical zones, and also in zones that are marked by the culture and history of imperial colonization: Austrian in the first case and Ottoman in the second. The perspective from the point of view of regional heritage makes possible to apply a trans-border approach in order to reveal connections of kinship between neighboring villages separated by political boundaries. In the article, the differences between certain cultural areas are explained with the support of history.

Любомир Миков. Обществени чешми в България (XV–XIX век). София: Мюсюлманско вероизповедание, Главно мюфтийство, 2019

Author(s): Nikolay Vukov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

Book review

Валентина Ганева-Райчева, Ирена Бокова, Николай Ненов (съст.). Местни общности, културни наследства и музеи. София: ИЕФЕМ – БАН, 2021

Author(s): Oksana Minaeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

Book review

Градска празничност в епидемична обстановка

Author(s): Iskren Velikov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The holiday is an essential element in the ideological regulation of public life; it plays an important role in shaping and stabilizing the group celebrating it, in all cases by actualizing the most important unifying values, and very often – by distinguishing examples of exemplary behaviour. The spread of the COVID-19 epidemic at the very beginning of 2020 leads to a number of radical changes in social life. The speed with which processes develop, as well as the search for new forms to continue established practices, leads to experimentation with the possibilities of new technologies, as well as of new conditions – education in an online environment, online shopping, outsourced commercial cash registers for outdoor service, limiting the capacity for public access, reducing programs, etc. Limiting physical access to official celebrations provoked an attempt to compensate for it by broadcasting the festive ceremonies live. However, the transfer of an event to an online environment places local communities in the passive role of spectators of a performance, without the opportunity of participation, and the social function of the celebration is reduced to the possibilities of the social network to communicate through texts and chat with other representatives of the community who observe the broadcast. These restrictions seem to compromise the very idea of a celebration and make visible the fact that its fundamental feature is the possibility of physical presence and participation of citizens.

Милковица през погледа на Зоя Микова

Author(s): Rada Slavinska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

Book review