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.
Communication is essential. Having the ability to communicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings is crucial in all environments. The education industry regards communication as a core business to transfer knowledge. This paper focuses on how two different groups of students at Sunway University, Malaysia, perceived Lecturers’ Credibility (LC) in a class that enhances the Students’ Engagement (SE). A group of 50 to 60 students from the Faculty of Arts (FoA) and School of Business (SoB) completed measures of LC and SE using McCroskey and Teven’s (1999) Source Credibility Questionnaire (SCQ) and Students Engagement Survey from Indicators of Positive Development Conference, Child Trends. The variables for LC comprise competence, character and caring (CCC), and the variables for SE consist of cognitive, behaviour and emotion (CBE). The study aims to determine if there are any differences in SE between students from FoA and SoB with their perceived LC. Hopefully, the study sheds some light on the research question: “Are there any differences among Faculty of Arts students and School of Business students in the relationship between lecturers’ credibility and students’ engagement?”
More...
The crisis in Ukraine of 2014 produced considerable change in the EU international environment, which not only tested its capabilities to react very quickly and adequately but also actually destroyed previous subtle balance of its Member States in relations with Russia. The EU Member States were not able to continue to maintain in these relations the “disunity” pattern, which was successfully described in the European Council on Foreign Relations study “A Power Audit of EU – Russia Relations” already in 2007. New turbulence pushed EU member states closer together, re-introduced old geopolitical constraints and concerns about national and international security and limited the room for diplomatic maneuver and finally produce new “unity” pattern. However nature of that new pattern remains not yet fully investigated from academic point of view. The aim of the article is to present results of analysis of this shift in foreign policy preferences of the EU and its Member States. The research is targeted to identify the nature of this change, which happened through process of adjustment to new reality, in the hierarchy of foreign policy preferences of Member States and finally of the European Union in general. The aim of the paper will be achieved by implementation of analysis of collected empirical data on foreign policy preferences of the EU Member States. The analysis will be based on typical methods of foreign policy analysis. Those include analysis of legal acts, statements of politicians, analytical literature and interviews with experts from the EU Member States. The conclusion of the article is supposed to answer to the main research question and to explain nature of new choices in the EU Members States foreign policies and its effect to the EU foreign policy towards Russia in general.
More...
In terms of security, he Balkans was one of the main regions that turkey gives importance to. Since 1923 by establishing diplomatic relations with Balkan countries via friendship treaties, Turkey tried to ensure this. Political affiliation and economic cooperations are developed rapidly especially Italy’s intention on the Balkans made those countries close to one another. This state of affair later on brought up Balkan Entente starting from Ataturk period Turkey Romania relations continued to improve to be around security and trade in the Inonu era as well. In this period, especially Turkish and Muslim population in Romania were taken care of with caution. Many people from Turkey migrated to Romania. After World War II, Romania was invaded by Germany. At the post war period, Romania stayed under the influence of Soviet Union. After this date, a rapid retrogradation in the relations took place.
More...
The process of economic transformation, after the collapse of the USSR, in the former republics, is called, in general “transition”. This change in the economy is perceived as a transformation from “the Centrally Planning Economy” to “the Market Economy”. Also the Kyrgyz Republic, since 1991, for over 20 years, is one of the countries trying to perform this transformation. In this study, perceptions and expectations of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic, with the overall assessment regarding the transition period, was measured, within the framework of “attitudes towards the market economy and private property”, “is there a longing for the old economic model?”, “attitudes towards the democratic and other institutions”, “opinions about the role of the State in the economy and the State intervention”. Results are varying in terms of various demographic groups like age, nationality, education, employment, and so on. However, as the most basic and obvious result, expectations of Kyrgyz citizen, about the role of the State in the economy and the State intervention, said to be very powerful and high.
More...
The referendum on United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union took place on June 23, 2016. With a turnout of 72.2%, 51.9% of those participating supported Brexit, while 48.1% voted against. The 2016 referendum was the second one on the British membership in the European project. The first one held in 1975 ended negatively for those supporting Brexit. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the British referendums of 1975 and of 2016, with a special focus on answering the question about the results of British votes and prospects of using the referendum in the process of deciding on matters of integration. An important task in this paper is to answer the question about the possible consequences of 2016 vote - both: for the United Kingdom and for the European Union.
More...
The author has concentrated on the idea of a socio-cultural regionalism, which is depicted in terms of historical-axiological reminiscences. He has emphasised the enormous cultural potential of this idea, which is not sufficiently used in the practice of local governments. He presented the approach of regionalism as an important value in the modern state, which forces the search for consensus and tolerance between people of different values living together in a pluralistic and democratic state, which is also a kind of community of values.
More...
The network paradigm needs explaining the importance of participation in the strategic management of regions and its impact on the competitiveness of the region, shaping the vision for the future of the region and meeting public needs. An important but underrated instrument supporting participatory management at the regional level is a regional foresight. The aim of the article is to present the potential of regional foresight programme in increasing participation in the strategic management of the region.
More...
Gender Mainstreaming (GM) was introduced by the European Union(EU) in 1997, as a strategy to achieve gender equality in all policy areas. Yet, European countries greatly diverge in their progress of implementation. We investigate the role GM played in Romanian and German policies aimed at achieving work-family reconciliation, using concepts from feminist policy analysis. Our analysis shows that pre-existing policies and discourse, the economic situation, as well as the relationship with the EU have shaped and impeded the implementation process of GM in both countries. While Germany slowly moves towards more egalitarian policies,GM as label and strategy did not succeed. In Romania, GM has only impacted work and family reconciliation indirectly through EU legislation.
More...
In this article, we discussed a definition of propaganda and overviewed the evolution of this phenomenon in the 20th–21st centuries. There is no single approach towards what is propaganda. Therefore, the Authors of this article use the definition of propaganda introduced by Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell: “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist”. Within this article we look at how propaganda works, what are its main characteristics and goals. We conclude that the model introduced by Jowett and O’Donnell may be applied in the research of interstate informational campaigns. Considering the structure of Russian propaganda, the proposed model adaptation divides it into three stages: the analysis of situation, process and results. The first stage involves the analysis of the propagandist and one’s context of propaganda. The main goal is to realise how propaganda is spread, what kind of an ideological approach it employs and what are the aims of propagandist. The analysis of a situation includes the fundamental aspects of the main propaganda target. Therefore, this analysis provides a good base for further research. A well done first phase analysis provides sufficient assumptions on new case research in the future and a repeated analysis of the first phase is only needed if one of the main objects has changed. The main objective of the second stage is to find a specific case of propaganda and information warfare. It is also important to trace the targeted audience. This significantly contributes in recognising and evaluating the techniques used by a propagandist and how the targeted audience react to them. The steps of process analysis may be repeated in order to investigate a new propaganda campaign. The third stage is dedicated to analysing the state after the informational attack. It is important to evaluate the strategy that was taken to counter any of the propaganda and damage that was dealt to the state. Received results are important in formulating the map of propaganda. This article suggests a propaganda research model to analyse Russian propaganda in Lithuania. However, the model still requires a case-study grounding; therefore, further studies should be conducted in this regard.
More...
Sir Robert Filmer was an English political theorist who defended absolutism and the divine right of kings criticizing Hobbes, Milton, Grotius, Bellarimine, Suarez and Aristotle. Filmer’s theory is founded upon the statement that the government of a family by the father is the true origin and model of all government. In the beginning God gave authority to Adam, who had complete control over his descendants, even over life and death itself. In his point of view the king is perfectly free from all human control, he cannot be bound by the acts of his predecessors, for which he is not responsible; nor by his own, for it is impossible that a man should give a law to himself – a law must be imposed by another upon the person bound by it. In the Article the Author argues that Filmer’s argument is perfect, complete but the last defense of unlimited royal power in the age of destruction of natural political authority.
More...
The author analyses the policies of Germany and France towards refugees who flocked to the European Union in 2015 and 2016. He shows the scale of the problem and how the migration crisis has been handled in Germany and France. He further underlines the differences between Berlin and Paris’s approach to mitigating this phenomenon and getting the other EU Member States involved in the process of taking in refugees.
More...
The issue of trust in international relations seems interesting and certainly merits a thorough examination. Compared to studies of other categories of international relations, those pertaining to trust still remain rather limited, but the sphere is increasingly attracting the attention of internatiologists. The purpose of this article is to expand the studies of international relations and state foreign policy, in particular the Polish ones, to include the category of trust, with special emphasis on Polish–Russian relations. The author has set out to review international relations theories while focusing on trust as well as to outline the notion of trust, its sources and determinants. In addition, the purpose of this article is to provide a preliminary answer to the question about the reasons behind the lack of trust between Poland and Russia.
More...
Russia and China have been implementing the projects of the Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road since the beginning of this decade. Each of the two countries, however, is employing two different sets of practices to build its influence. Russia is interested in establishing its own exclusive sphere of influence in the post-Soviet space. Its goal is to consolidate its superpower status and ensure primacy in the region. China, in turn, is developing its economic influence, and does not limit itself to any specific territory. Beijing strives to increase its economic presence abroad and hide its economic expansion behind a smokescreen of multilateralism. Because of these differences between the two projects of expanding influence, Chinese–Russian rivalry in Central Asia seems rather unlikely.
More...
Integration negotiations of the ‘win-win’ type can be applied in political, economic, trade, international, collective as well as many other types of negotiations. The most important barriers to the application of the principles of the Harvard model are: emotions, narrow-sightedness, insufficient knowledge about the subject of negotiations, haste induced by time pressure, aversion and prejudice, retaliatory actions, and fear of the opponent’s reaction. The aim of the article is to present the negotiations with Iran on the basis of win-win concepts. It points out the barriers that the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran had to overcome in order to reach the nuclear agreement. It further emphasises the limitations resulting from the adopted format of the agreement, which partly fulfils the criteria of win-win negotiations.
More...
Since the establishment of the United Nations, political operations have been at the core of its activity related to preserving international peace and security. At the same time, they are very versatile and can be used at any stage of a conflict: as preventive measures, when the situation between the conflicted parties is becoming worse; as mediation measures during an ongoing conflict, to end it; at the post-war stage, when it is necessary to develop peace conditions and a new state order. After the Iraq War, the UN established the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, tasked with such issues as providing support to Iraqis in preparing and conducting democratic elections, passing a constitution, promoting national dialogue. The purpose of this article is to analyse the UN’s activity after the Iraq War, present the most important initiatives of UNAMI in terms of social and political transformations, which is to help the author answer the following questions: What role did the UN play after the Iraq War? What tasks were set before the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq? Were the implemented actions and initiatives effective?
More...
The article presents a simple model explaining the actions of potential interveners in a situation of serious and mass violations of human rights. In this model, the key factor in making a decision to launch a humanitarian intervention are not the criteria of just war but the prospect of success defined as a complex of determinants facilitating the achievement of humanitarian effects with minimum losses for the intervener. The article points out the relation between the execution of the operational goals of an armed intervention and the probability of a decision to launch a humanitarian intervention. On the basis of a critical literature review and the history of enforcing the observance of human rights after 1991 it identifies the conditions that, when combined, determine high probability of success of a humanitarian mission: (a) the power of the potential intervener; (b) the reaction strategy for neutralising the potential enemy; (c) the possibilities of precisely defining goals in political and humanitarian terms; (d) the climate, environment, geographic and infrastructural conditions favouring the interveners; (e) effective use of the intervener’s logistic resources; (f) the intervener’s determination in pursuing the objective; (g) a clear political situation understood as the existence of a consolidated opposition to the central authority as the party that violates human rights; (h) the extent of connections under international law and political relations of the country subject to the intervention; (i) the legitimacy of the intervener’s actions; (j) the intervener’s coherence. An analysis of the above conditions on theexample of the situation in Lybia (2011) and Syria (2013) offers an explanation as to why it was decided to intervene in Libya while no operations were launched in Syria. Particularly important among the conditions increasing the prospect of success are: the presence of a local ally of the potential intervener, who opposes the human rights violator and has the potential for effective political and military action when supported by the intervener.
More...
Our analysis deals with the electoral contest of individual political parties both before and after the 2016 Slovak parliamentary election was held. The space, which is provided from all kinds of media to political parties, is various. Each medium has an owner and each owner supports different interests. Parliamentary election is considered to be the most important election in Slovakia and thanks to that really wide media coverage is givento them. A couple of months before the opening of the polling stations, discussions had already been underway in both professional and amateur circles regarding the possible variations of the next governing political parties. The media play a large part in decision-making because they can have a meaningful influence on public opinion. Many voters today decide who they will vote for according to media coverage. Political programmes and agendas of the parties and political representatives come second in this decision. In our analysis we also look at online social networking sites, which are currently a huge phenomenon. Every political subject nowadays has its own website and every modern politician has a profile page on Facebook, an account on Twitter and on other social networks. We will also try to approach the possible perspectives of the development of the Slovak political scene.
More...
For the purposes of this article it has been assumed that public opinion is a rapidly changing state of consciousness of large social groups, made up of more or less stable ideas and beliefs, relating to debatable issues, which has a direct or indirect impact on the current or future interests of society by its properties. This article aims to analyze the impact of public opinion on Polish foreign policy after 1989. The article assumes that: the public opinion has an impact on decisions affecting foreign policy, although the extent of this impact is very different and often is purely indirect; impact of public opinion in Poland on foreign policy increases, but still shall be defined only as incidental impact; public opinion in Poland does not determine foreign policy.
More...