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Haunted Independence: The Ghost of Ambazonia in Cameroon’s National Memory
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
Each October 1st, Cameroon confronts a past it has never fully resolved. The date marks the 1961 entry of British Southern Cameroons into union with the Republic of Cameroun, yet it was never firmly institutionalised by the post-colonial state. Instead, October 1st remains an uneasy and largely...
The Internationalisation of Jina Mahsa Amini Anniversaries: Memory, Diaspora and Human Rights Politics (2023–2025)
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
Anniversaries occupy a pivotal place in the politics of memory, functioning as contested arenas where states, societies and diasporas negotiate identity, legitimacy and justice. Focusing on the Mahsa Amini anniversaries (2023–2025) and the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, this paper argues...
Silenced Anniversaries, Stateless Memories: Rohingya Women‘s Oral Histories as Counter-Commemoration
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
Anniversaries are powerful instruments of nation-building, political legitimacy and collective memory. Yet for stateless peoples like the Rohingya – systematically stripped of citizenship in Myanmar and forcibly displaced into refugee camps in Bangladesh – commemorative recognition remains...
Remembering the Algerian War in France: The Role of Interest Groups in Framing Ontological (In)Security
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
The Algerian War occupies a particularly contentious and emotionally charged place in France’s national memory – serving as the source of a veritable war of memories that is regularly fought on various political and scholarly battlegrounds. Previous research has shown that the tension between...
The Politics of Water Security in the Nile Basin: From Hydrohegemony to Community of Hydrosecurity?
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
The politics of Transboundary Water Security (TWS) reflect a complex interplay of power, discourse and competing national interests. Focusing on the Nile Basin and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), this paper examines how water security has become a contested political and security...
Individual Threat Perception and Limits of Household Preparedness in Helsinki, Riga and German Cities
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
European security policy increasingly relies on comprehensive defence and responsibilisation, expecting households to follow contingency protocols and sustain themselves for at least 72 hours. Using 2025 urban survey data from Helsinki (Finland), Riga (Latvia) and the German cities of Berlin,...
From Civilian Power to Emerging Security Provider? The European Union’s Evolving Role in Southeast Asia
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
Over the past decade, the European Union has articulated increasingly explicit ambitions to act as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific. Southeast Asia constitutes a particularly revealing arena in which to assess this evolution, as the region sits at the geopolitical core of the Indo-Pacific...
From Soft Power to Sharp Power: Weaponising Western Academic Knowledge in Russian Political Discourse
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper examines how Russia appropriates Western academic knowledge as a tool of influence in its communication with Western audiences. It pursues three main objectives. First, it argues that the concept of soft power has been widely misunderstood due to its intangible, non-kinetic nature,...
Signalling and Balancing in the Conflict in Ukraine from 2014 to 2016: Ukrainian Actors, Russia and the European Union
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper analyses the conflictual and cooperative signals of two domestic actors – the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian separatists – and two international actors – the European Union and the Russian Federation – during the first three years of the conflict in Ukraine. Previous studies...
The External Political Impacts of Rescheduling Iraq’s Debts Post-2003
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
After 2003, Iraq underwent a profound political and economic transformation, accompanied by various challenges, including the burden of accumulated external debt. The post-regime government restructured Iraq’s debt within the framework of the ‘Paris Club’ and through bilateral negotiations...
Understanding Terrorism: A New Perspective through Group Cohesion
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
Terrorism is a paradoxical phenomenon: Despite its status as a critical global security threat, its strategic effectiveness often proves counterproductive, failing to achieve its core agendas. Therefore, why does terrorism persist as a global threat despite its frequent failure to achieve political...
Collective Memory and National Role Conceptions: The Legacy of Violence on Foreign Policy in Austria and Greece During the Cold War
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
This article investigates the influence of collective memories of violence on the foreign policies of small states, focusing on Austria and Greece as two ‘frontline states’ of the early Cold War in Europe. The article develops an analytical framework linking memory narratives to policy. Using...
Correction to ‘Local Content Curriculum Implementation in the Framework of Nationalism and National Security’
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 1
Correction to ‘Local Content Curriculum Implementation in the Framework of Nationalism and National Security’ by Novie Indrawati Sagita, Nandang Alamsah Deliarnoor, Dian Afifah (published in vol. 13, no. 4, 2019).
In the above-mentioned article, the full name of the last-listed author should be stated...
High, Dry and Allied: The Ethics of Breaching the Collective Defence Duty
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
This article adopts a normative approach to one of the most consequential issues of alliance management: the question of if and when an ally is justified in breaching its collective defence duty (CDD). An ally's CDD constitutes its formal obligation to militarily defend its ally in the event...
From Almaty to Minsk: When Does the Collective Security Treaty Organization Intervene?
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
This study investigates how the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) intervenes militarily in the affairs of member states. Through comparative case study and process-tracing methodology, cases of non-intervention including Kyrgyzstan, 2005, 2010, 2020; Armenia, 2021; Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan,...
Beyond a Single Purpose: The Complex Reasons Behind International Sanctions
Issue:
Volume 20, Issue 1
Abstract
Sanctions are increasingly imposed in response to international crises and military conflicts. Much is known about the aims sanctions seek to achieve, such as coercion, deterrence and signalling, yet the catalysts for their imposition are often overlooked. Despite the existence of a sanctions...
Conceptual Quality in Security and Defence Practice: The Case of Hybrid Warfare
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
It has become a norm to bemoan the unending stream of new concepts in defence policy, many of which sparked a lively debate on their actual novelty, utility and, more generally, added value. Those discussions often lack a shared language or benchmarks. The paper argues that the analytical utility...
Weaponisation of Interdependence: Unpacking European Ontological Anxieties?
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
Traditional scholarship on economic interdependence assumes that economic ties primarily function as stabilising mechanisms or strategic tools for leverage. However, they neglect how identity and ontological concerns can securitise interdependence. This study addresses this critical gap by...
Populist (Dis)Engagement with International Parliamentary Institutions: Central Europeans in the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
How do populist politicians behave in international parliamentary institutions (IPIs)? Although there is a rapidly growing literature on the foreign policy of populist executive actors, the manifestation of populism as a thin-centred ideology in an international parliamentary setting is not...
Populism, Sanctions and Sovereignty: The Case of Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
This study examines Zimbabwe’s 2003 withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations under Robert Mugabe as an empirical case of populist engagement with international institutions. Mugabe’s rhetoric and actions reveal how populist figures employ anti-imperialist and nationalist narratives to challenge...
A Tale of Two Populists: Javier Milei's and Nayib Bukele's Approach toward International Organisations
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
International organisations have formed the foundation of the global multilateral order since the end of World War II. In recent years, however, they have become the target of increasing criticism from populist politicians who are trying to demolish the foundations of the liberal international...
What Happens When Non-Western Voices Enter International Relations? Kautilya and the Politics of Access
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper shifts the focus from the familiar question of why is there no non-Western theory in International Relations (IR) to a process-oriented inquiry of what happens to non-Western perspectives when incorporated into IR? While critical IR scholarship has explored the way ethnocentrism,...
China’s Normative Balancing: Global Security Initiative and Middle East Security Architecture
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
This article examines China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) as a soft balancing strategy, specifically in the form of normative balancing. It employs a qualitative approach based on data collected from the official website of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as secondary sources...
Crossing the ‘Global South Frontier’: Mapping Latin American Presence in International Relations Publications
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
Despite increasing calls to globalise and pluralise the field, International Relations (IR) remains dominated by institutions based in the Global North. This paper engages with the theme of exclusion with access by complementing ongoing critiques of the discipline’s epistemic hierarchies by...
Navigating Borderlands: Civil Society and Relational Narratives in Georgia’s EU Candidacy
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper investigates how civil society organisations (CSOs) navigate and reshape geopolitical narratives within the European Union’s evolving candidacy framework. By highlighting the performed inclusivity of EU narratives, it offers a nuanced perspective on the socio-political dynamics of...
The Global South as ‘Europe’s Jungle’: A Postcolonial Critique of EU Foreign Policy in a Changing World Order
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
The global world order has been transforming, becoming increasingly less Europe-centred. In this context, the paper critically examines how European Union (EU) foreign policy narratives are structured by the coloniality of power, as conceptualised by Quijano, with a focus on Josep Borrell’s...
The Terrorist Spectacle Revisited: Assemblages of Terror from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the Islamic State
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
This article employs the assemblage thinking to further the debates on the nature of terrorist spectacle. The spectacular nature of terrorism – inducing shock on the wide part of the public – is widely regarded as one of the defining traits which distinguish it from other forms of political...
‘Global Transformation’: Chinese Scholars Debate the International System in the Aftermath of the War in Ukraine (2022–2024)
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 2
Abstract
This article explores discussions among Chinese International Relations scholars on the effects of the war in Ukraine. While official Chinese foreign policy rhetoric is often vaguely centred around obscure slogans, scholarly debates can be used as a ‘proxy measure’ to gain insights on the prevailing...
Unravelling Indonesia’s Failure to Implement the ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement (APSA)
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 2
Abstract
In 1975, Indonesia initiated oil and gas cooperation, leading to the establishment of the ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) in 1976. Then, the ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement (APSA) was created to improve petroleum security and minimise the impact of emergencies experienced by ASEAN Member...
Interwoven Resilience: Non-State Actors and Formal Institutions in Ukraine’s Urban War Effort
Issue:
Volume 19, Issue 2
Abstract
This article explores the perceptions of an interplay between formal and informal institutions in sustaining Ukraine’s defence and governance during the full-scale Russian invasion. Focusing on three cities—Vinnytsia, Mykolayiv and Sumy—it examines how civil society organisations, business...