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This text explains and emphasize on the methods which the presidential-candidates in Bulgaria use to convince their audience in what they say in their speeches. In the following text it is shown which methods are effective and should be used while speaking in front of the audience and which methods are ineffective and better be avoided by the speakers. How these methods reflect the listeners, why it is important to use them when necessary and how to classify them by their importance for both speakers and audience is the main purpose of this paper.
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The article discusses the functioning of NATO in 2018. It describes thedeterminants of relations between the allies in this period, especially the impactDonald Trump’s first year as President and growing populist tendencies in Europehave on transatlantic ties. It also discusses the key points of dispute between theallies (e.g. the debates over burden-sharing between NATO members) and assessesthe most important reforms of the Alliance that are meant to increase its operationalreadiness particularly in the context of deterrence and collective defence. NATO’soperational activity was also analyzed as well as the changes in relations with theorganization’s external partners.
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The article discusses the evolution and functioning of the Common Security andDefence Policy of the EU in 2018. The authors start with an analysis of externaland internal determinants of cooperation within CSDP, with particular attention tothe impact of transatlantic relations and US approach to the European initiativesas well as of internal tensions in the EU. Then they discuss the implementation ofthe decisions from December 2017 on the initiation of PESCO, which constitutesthe central topic of the paper. The functioning of European Defence Fund is alsoanalyzed, as well as the essence and implications of the French proposal of EuropeanIntervention Initiative (E2I). In the last part of the article, operational engagementof the EU is briefly presented, including a discussion of modifications of CSDPand ways of implementing them, namely Civilian CSDP Compact (CCC), and thedebates over the future of maritime activities of the EU in the Mediterranean. Theauthors conclude with an assessment of the results of the development of PESCOand EDF in the last year and of the perspectives of future cooperation.
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The article presents the activities of the UN Security Council in 2018 in lightof the Secretary General’s statements concerning the state of the world. The firstpart is devoted to drafts of resolutions on the Middle East, which were vetoed bypermanent members of the Security Council. The second one is focused on decisionsconcerning African states such as the Republic of Central Africa, Sudan, SouthSudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Somalia; as well as on thematicresolutions concerning peacebuilding, protection of civilians and children in armedconflicts, the role of youths for peace and security. In the third part, basic data on peacekeeping are presented and some violations of peacekeeping rules described.A separate part is devoted to Poland’s activities within the SC and in particular itsengagement in promoting international law.
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The aim of the article is to present the major armed conflicts – the wars in threeMiddle East countries: Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The selection criteria includenot only geographic factors, but also the nature of the conflicts, i.e. they are allcivil wars and have become internationalized as a result of involvement of externalpowers, i.e. the military forces of several countries. In Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan the enemy has been the so called Islamic State; in Syria it was the main enemy. Thethree countries were the most impacted by terrorism.
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The second year of Donald Trump’s presidency was not a time of breakthroughs orevents of historical significance. However, there have been some signs foreshadowingsignificant changes for the US.After Trump’s two years in office, the economy is still booming, although afteryears of prosperity one could expect slowdown in the nearest future. In domesticpolitics, the President focused on fulfilling his campaign promises and supportingthe Republicans in maintaining the majority in Congress after the midterm elections.The greatest obstacles for accomplishing Trump’s election goals include: growingconflicts between the President and Democrats, problems related to the investigationby the special prosecutor R. Mueller’s commission, instability and rotation at the toppositions in the administration, and the President’s war with the news media.The “America First” approach continued to dominate in the field of foreignpolicy. The President concentrated his efforts on disposing of Obama’s legacy andimplementing initiatives aimed at protecting the interests of the US and of Americancitizens. However, the lack of a clear vision and consistency in foreign policy,disputes within the administration, a stiffer position and tightening of dialogue withforeign partners led to a further drop in confidence and loss of US credibility on theinternational arena.In general, in fulfilling the vision of Making America Great Again, D. Trump usesmethods and means which are far from the standards previously known in Americanpolitics. As a result, the nature of American domestic and foreign policy is changing.It is an open question, however, whether the processes will prove permanent, to whatextent, and, if so, how will it affect the US political system and international order.
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In 2018, even though Vladimir Putin’s mandate was formally confirmed ina presidential election, his approval ratings fell significantly, particularly becauseof his highly unpopular decision to raise the retirement age substantially. Thedecision was one of the ways of seeking savings and building reserves in case theeconomic situation became worse as a result of multiplying American sanctionsand changes in the energy resources market. It was a challenge for the Kremlin, andthe Russian government looked for a way to strengthen the political legitimacy ofPutin’s rule while trying to keep their foreign policy directions unchanged withoutunduly escalating the conflict with the US. Russia attempted to make use of growingtransatlantic tensions while looking to normalize its relations with the main WesternEuropean countries and tightening its unequal anti-American quasi-alliance withChina.
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The article aims to analyze the region of Eastern Europe and South Caucasusfrom the perspective of the EU Eastern Partnership programme. Ten years afterits initiation, the region remains unstable both politically and militarily. It is stillstruggling with post-Soviet heritage, such as corruption and authoritarian tendencies.While some countries (Armenia) try to counter these challenges, in others (Moldova)there was a significant deterioration of democratic standards. Such a situationseems to indicate the weakness of the EU’s policy mechanisms towards its Easternneighbourhood.According to the EaP assumptions, the cooperation with the countries of theregion is conducted on the case by case basis. This results in the separation of theEastern neighbours of the EU into two subgroups: the first one is made up of Ukraine,Moldova, and Georgia, which in 2014–2017 concluded association agreements withthe EU, providing for the creation of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas,and were offered a visa-free regime; the second one gathers Belarus, Armenia, andAzerbaijan, with which cooperation is more limited.Russia’s policy remains a key challenge both for the countries of the region and theEU. The Russian Federation is striving both to increase its influence in the countriesof Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, and to limit their cooperation with the EU.An important instrument, though not the only one, of the expansive Russian policyin the region are the frozen conflicts affecting Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia,and Azerbaijan. In the case of Belarus, progressive integration of this country withRussia should not be excluded.
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After several years in which the reports from the Middle East were dominated bynews on the fight against the Islamic State, in 2018 there was a significant change.A series of failures of IS in 2016-2017 led to the situation in which the basic questionconcerning the Middle East focussed not so much on the way to overcome theorganization, but rather on the essence of the new international order, shaped asa result of clashing interests of different states and political forces. In Syria, plungedinto civil war since 2011, the scale of victory clearly shifted to the side of the forcesfaithful to President Bashar al-Assad. In Iraq, after a period of cooperation of differentpolitical forces faced with IS expansion, ethnic and confessional divisions revivedagain. At the same time, mechanisms for seeking effective ways to eliminate threatsto the stability of the country have been introduced. Conflicts in Libya and Yemenare still far from settled. Both countries have no governments that can effectivelycontrol the situation in their territories and external actors get involved to furthertheir particular interests. Local conflicts thus become a playing field for competingregional and global powers, hindering stabilization processes.
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Different trajectories of post-socialist societal transformations and their alternativeconceptualizations are discussed. The paper addresses the specific mode of post-socialist societydesignated as "state capture" and its economic, political and social dimensions. The paper offers atheoretical model of the captured state, identifying its differentia specifica and its economic,political and social effects. The interaction between state institutions, political and economicpower networks and their rational strategies to capture the state is identified. The implementationof these strategies involves the formation and operation of politico-economic power networks thatseek to control key public legislative, executive and judiciary institutions and to extract economicand political benefits. The state capture has fundamental political, economic and social consequences that could become serious barriers to deepening European integration and even stimulate disintegration processes.
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This volume is a collection of papers presented at the International conference The Balkans and Europe between Integration and Particularism: Challenges and Prospects, organized by the Faculty of International Economy and Politics at UNWE andthe Bulgarian Political Science Association and held in Sofia on October 25-26, 2018.The topic might seem trivial, for recently the focus of political and diplomatic attention has yet again shifted back to the troublesome South-Eastern part of Europe.Hence, numerous political and academic events dedicated to the Balkans, and to theWestern Balkans in particular, in the light of the EU integration processes in the region have been organized.
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Despite the internal destabilization and ongoing asymmetric crises, European Unionstill tends on extending its borders. The main target destinations are Western Balkans countries,which, undoubtedly, present a more complex case compared to previous rounds of the EU enlargement. In the same time, as a result of acceleration, EU has set standards higher than ever. Inthe strive to cover the EU-set acquisition standards, and to attract foreign investments, WesternBalkans countries produce different degrees of political risk which affects the business and investors. The article presents a part of the results of a complex authors’ research with а main focus of evaluating the Western Balkans countries political, economical, social, and risk environment inthe Eurointegration processes in the region. A specially designed modification of the well-knownPEST analysis (PES(I)) analysis is applied on 10-year period (2007-2017). It is concluded thatWestern Balkan accession to EU is more a political rather than an economical issue. Based on theanalysis, Republic of Albania is shown to be the best performing country among the region, doingthe biggest progress in economic and political aspects, generating the lowest political risk levels.Keywords: Western Balkans, political regime, democracy score, exchange rate regime, GDP,GDP per capita, population growth, age and educational structure, key interest rate, sovereignspreads, sovereign credit risk, credit rating, financial markets, political indicators, political risk.
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The European Union is facing a number of serious challenges which shall be solved through utilizing its own resources – human, financial and intellectual. At the same time, its institutional structure is increasingly criticized - both externally and internally, by the European and national politicians, and increasingly by the European citizens. The disapproval of the EU is aimed both at the functioning and the activities of specific institutions and at the way in which they interact in the general structure, as well as against the implementation of certain policies. This report presents some weaknesses identified by the three main EU institutions - the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament. The second part presents the main critical directions to the EU institutional system - bureaucratic inefficiency, democratic deficiency and inefficiency of the EU policies. Their nature and opportunities for improvement are analyzed.
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Additional to the three main trends influencing social dialogue at the organizational level - de-centralization, up-scaling, de-institutionalization and representation – the COVID-19 pandemic rules brought a new influence that impacts the Unions, forcing it to adapt its internal communication. This paper is centred upon the way the Unions members in Romania get access to information in the new labour landscape, characterized by the work from home and physical distancing. The research focuses on a collective case-study of three strong Union Federations that developed internal communication with unions’ members that fits the pandemic context. The research focuses on the internal communication repertoire elements used by the Unions. The research method assesses the qualitative information gathered by interviewing key Unions representatives. The main areas of interest are the key topics addressed in the communication with the members, the tools and media mix used, the frequency of the formal communication with the trade unions members, the accountable and the responsible persons with the internal communication, and the management of the feedback from the members, all in the context of what is different vs. 2019. The conclusions are enriched with some recommendations for future development of communication with union members, supporting the social dialog.
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Sustainable development approaches the concept of quality of life in all its complexity, from an economic, social and environmental point of view, promoting the idea of the balance between economic development, social equity, efficient use and conservation of the environment.By its very nature, sustainable development represents the need for responsibility and education for environmental protection, and this aspect is reflected in the evolution of community policy in recent years, a policy marked by the transition from an approach based on constraint and sanction, to a more flexible, based one on incentives. Thus, it is acting in the direction of a voluntary approach, in order to promote this environmental responsibility and to encourage the use of environmental management systems.The environmental policy does not act independently, but reflects the interest of civil society in this direction, manifested by the creation of numerous environmental movements and organizations. Moreover, in some countries the creation and development of "green" political parties has been achieved, with real success in the political arena. However, resistance - or, more properly, the restraint and inertia that manifests itself, should not be forgotten, when environmental objectives seem to limit industrial competitiveness and economic growth; but this aspect only emphasizes once again the need for a concerted approach at European level and the need for an active and integrated environmental policy, capable of responding to the challenges that appear economically.The European environmental policy is based on the principles of precaution, prevention, correction of pollution at source and "polluter pays". The precautionary principle is a risk management tool that can be invoked if there is scientific uncertainty about a possible risk to human health or the environment, arising from a particular action or policy.
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1. LECȚIA DE ISTORIE (I). Despre necesitatea altui Centru 2. IL UTOPIILE IMPERIALE ca vocație a Periferiei, între Periferie și Margine. 3. III. CUTIA PANDOREI (I). Temele tabu ale unei lumi blestemate 4. IV. CUTIA PANDOREI (II). Pentru o istorie alternativă a literaturilor Europei Centrale
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