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Deterring Russia by U.S. Followership? Decomposing the Czech Participation in Afghanistan
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: Deconstructing and explaining the Czech involvement in Afghanistan’s post-war reconstruction are the key roles of this study. The notion of strategic narrative has recently been gaining popularity with security analysts. This work considers the applicability of this concept and its links to...
Is There a Legal Basis for Military Intervention to Protect Civilians in Syria?
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in March 2011 assumed a more formal nature following the violent government response that ultimately escalated into civil war. There is broad consensus that the Syrian regime has committed crimes against humanity against its own population...
The Issue of Madhism within Shia Ideology and Ahmadinejad’s Doctrine
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: I will attempt to argue in this paper that the rise of Mahdism within Shi’a political Islam during Ahmadinejad’s era did not lead to a significant break with previous development. Relevance of Mahdism within Shi’a politicized and ideologized Islam in Iran has been on the rise since the...
The Poverty of Statistics: Military Power and Strategic Balance
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: Military expenditures and the number of service personnel are the two most common features used to compare national military power. However, to what extent they reflect the real world remains a question. This article aims to provide the answer by using data on the great power conflicts of the...
Looking for Insurgency in Cyberspace
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: This study explores the rapidly developing area of conflicts in cyberspace. Its main objective is to outline the concept of cyber-insurgency, which has so far been missing from academic investigations. In addition, this work examines other types of conflicts present in cyberspace, including...
Latvia and Money Laundering: An Examination of Regulatory and Institutional Effectiveness in Combating Money Laundering
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: In the wake of the Cyprus bailout, illicit financial flows and money laundering have shown their systemic threat to the stability of not only the Eurozone but to the international financial system. Great attention is being paid to countries’ anti-money laundering efforts and on the stability...
Saudi Arabia and the Arab Spring: Reshaping Saudi Security Doctrine
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The Gulf regional strategic environment indicates that the balance of power is moving towards an inward concentration for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states while Iran attempts to fill the strategic vacuum created by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. This work explores Saudi national security...
Differentiating Arctic Provinces: A Cluster Analysis of Geographic and Geopolitical Indicators
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT:Based on a geographical-administrative definition of the region, theoretical assumptions of contemporary structuralist geopolitics, cross-sectional data for 2000, 2005 and 2010 from the Arctic Regional Attributes Dataset, and the technical capabilities of cluster analysis, this article aims...
How the 2004 and 2007 EU Enlargements Weakened the CFSP and CSDP: A Socio-Economic and Geopolitical Analysis
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: From its very beginnings, defence and security related issues were a major concern of EU policy. However, it was the demise of the USSR in the early 1990’s and the end of the Cold War that – between 1998 and 2004 – gave a major push to the evolution of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy...
China’s Multidimensional Juggle: The Challenges of a Rising Power
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: As the 21st century unfolds, it is almost unarguable that East and Southeast Asia will be increasingly important in global economic, political, and security affairs. China, depicted in media outlets as a state which is continually violating human rights, is dealing with recurrent internal problems...
Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of the Philippines and the East European Socialist Bloc under President Ferdinand E. Marcos
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Diplomatic communiqués between the Philippines and the Eastern European Socialist Bloc found in the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of the Philippines reveals a compendium of original data significant in tracing the inception of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and...
Religion, Identity and Citizenship: The Predicament of Shiʿa Fundamentalism in Bahrain
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: In 2011, Bahrain witnessed an unprecedented wave of political protests that came within a chain of protest movements in other Arab countries, which later came to be known as the “Arab Spring.” Irrespective of the difference in the appellations given to these protests, their occurrence in Bahrain...
Seeking Community Reconciliation through Traditional Ceremonies: A Strategy of Conflict Management
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The debate on the role of traditional conflict management and reconciliation practices in modern post-war situations has been around for a while. The central concern is whether approaches that reflect the cultural context of the conflict setting would be better suited for responding to the...
Vindicating Neoclassical Geopolitics, Challenging Postmodernism: A NewLook at an Old Problem
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The objective of this work is to exhort the Academia towards a Neoclassical Geopolitics, both in terms of theory and methodology. The relevance of the problem – the validity of Neoclassical Geopolitics – is based on the hypothesis that geography influences the foreign policies of States. Such...
From BSU to BSEC: The Evocation of Inter-War Geopolitical Fantasies
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
Abstract: This study charts the political, cultural and economic foundations of two inter-governmental bodies intended to emerge in the Black Sea region: the first, the Black Sea Union (BSU) was an idea developed by Ukrainian geopolitical specialist Yuriy Lypa before World War II. The second is the current...
American “Foreign Policy” in Film: Post-World War II Identity Creation
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This article continues the author’s previous examination of sub-elite identification through popular film from ‘Three Incarnations of The Quiet American: Applying Campbell’s “foreign policy” to Sub-Elite Identifiers.’ Departing from the argument made in that work, this article examines five...
The Business of Private Security in Europe: The Case of Bulgaria
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work offers readers’ information related to the infusion of private businesses into the area of private security in one of the EU’s “new” member states: Bulgaria. The materials and analysis offered in this text attempts to act and an inspirational probe that goes beyond publicly accessible...
Shooting Training of CSI Staff
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on firearms training in the commercial security industry. The article is divided into three parts: in the first, the authors provide a description of firearms in the commercial security industry (hereinafter referred to as CSI). The second part presents and explores some...
Across the Lines of the World State: The Case of the United Nations
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work asks how the UN attempts to bypass the current system of states while identifying a series of reinforcing UN efforts that could be utilised to hoist this organisation to the level of acting as a world government. The title of this work – which may be read in two distinct ways – illustrates...
The New Age of the US-EU-Chinese Relations and Dilemmas
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This article examines the world’s key actors: the US, EU and China, and analyses their political, economic and security relations, as well as stances on geopolitical and global economic development. Asia-Pacific is investigated as the chief determinant of the global development and also, thanks...
The “Marine” Factor: What the Lepenisation of French Politics Really Means
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Marine Le Pen, president of the French extreme-right party Front National, emerged on the political scene as not only the daughter and heir to Jean-Marie Le Pen, but a smarter and more seductive leader than her father. Her rise – just a few months before the 2012 French presidential elections...
Interregional Divergence of EU-ASEAN Relations: Achievements, Challenges and External Influences
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Interregionalism is a pragmatic strategy of the EU’s external action and a tool to extend norms and European values to the developing world as well as a tool in the promotion of global governance. In this sense, the EU has built several interregional and trans-regional frameworks around the...
Limits of Human Development in a Weak and Religiously Fractured State: The Case of Lebanon
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Deploying Lebanon as a case study, this article links the concept of human development to weak and failed states to provide insights into ways to enhance the effectiveness of implementing development strategies. Lebanon serves as an example of a weak state characterised by strong religious...
Israel and Turkey: From Realpolitik to Rhetoric?
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This article analyses the media discourse on Israel in Turkey during the crisis period that followed Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (2008) and culminated in May 2010, when Israeli armed forced attacked the Mavi Marmara, a ship operated by a Turkish Islamic NGO, leaving nine Turkish activists...
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC): Half a Century of Covering Bahrain
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Until 1968, Bahrain was a protectorate of the British government during its days of imperial glory, and home to its political agent in the region. Research shows that the first television programme covering events in Bahrain dates back to the 1950‘s making, the British Broadcasting Company...
Yet Another Version of the ‘Arab Spring:’ Ramifications of the Syrian Conflict on the Existing Arab Order and Beyond
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: At the start of 2011, events began to unfold in some of the most stable Arab countries betraying signs of an unpredictable phase in local, regional and even international political life. Nine of the 22 Arab League members were, to varying degrees, undergoing unprecedented mass gestations promising...
Changes in Turkish-Israeli Relations and Implications for Regional Security Environment
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This work looks at how changes to global, regional and national political landscapes played a role in shaping Turkish-Israeli relations and how this, in turn, affected regional security and development in the Middle East. Specifically, I illustrate how Turkish political actors from the Islamic...
European Civil Society’s Conundrum: Public Spheres, Identities and the Challenge of Politicisation
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This work draws upon the novel theoretical framework of European civil society which is based on the complementary concept of civil society. It claims that relations between the Europeanised public spheres, political identities and the politicisation of the EU present an intricate and crucial...
‘I am Georgian and therefore I am European:’ Re-searching the Europeanness of Georgia
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: ‘I am Georgian and therefore I am European.’ These words spoken by the late Georgian Prime Minister, Zurab Zhvania, in front of the Council of Europe in 1999. During the speech, he expressed Georgia’s EU aspirations and outlined the country’s foreign policy agenda for the next decade. Since...
Deconstructing and Defining EULEX
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: Hailed as the greatest European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) mission to date, the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) has been oscillating between fulfilling its mission statement crafted in Brussels, while managing the controversial ethnic expectations of the local population...