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Keywords: Middle East; Community; Syria; Hezbollah; Israel; Securitization; Social Constructivism
Lebanon, which has been affected from the Arabic culture generally, includes various religious/denominational factions on its own. Therefore Lebanon is a country that reflects large scale social and political alterations overtly. Due to the geographical position and social structure, Lebanon has a place in the foreign policies of Syria, Iran, Jordan and Israel particularly. Lebanon articulates nearly all of the chronic problems of the Middle East into its body. The religious/denominational variety that Lebanon holds, pushes the identity of being Lebanese into the background and causes the communions which has been factionalized by the help of social differentiation to gain importance when it is united with the international system-based conflicts that are related with the Middle East. Social and political tensions that arise from Lebanon take their sources from the securitization of the religious/denominational separation lines. This work deals with the future of Lebanon in the wake of the Arab Spring by drawing upon the theories of social constructivism and Copenhagen School.
More...Keywords: Turkish Foreign Policy; Turkey-Africa Relations; Opening to Africa Policy; Strategic Partnership
After the approval of ‘Opening to Africa Plan’ in 1998, Turkey, who has made an entrance to Africa recently, specifically by implementing a policy which has had economic, cultural and humane dimensions since 2005, is developing its relations with the countries of Africa and consolidating the institutional infrastructure of the cooperation based on the strategic partnership. Cooperation, whose principles were defined by two parties at the I. Summit held in Istanbul where ‘The Istanbul Declaration’ and ‘The Framework for Cooperation’ documents were adopted, was carried to the implementation phase by ‘Implementation Plan 2010-2014’.The development of the Turkey-Africa relations has an importance which will have bearings on balance of regional powers. While opening to Africa has supplied economic and political opportunities to Turkey, decision makers will face with the difficulties of multilateral politics in the forthcoming course.
More...Keywords: The European Union; Foreign Policy; Secularism; Islamism; Kurdish Nationalism
This study, which deals with Turkey-EU relations in the first decade of the 2000s, interrogates the way in which relations between Turkey and the EU have shaped relations between domestic actors in Turkey. This paper assumes that foreign policy is not independent from domestic affairs and therefore asks how we can understand Turkish-EU relations in terms of relations among secular, Islamic and Kurdish power blocks in Turkey.
More...Keywords: EU Agency for Fundamental Rights; Protection and Promotion of Human Rights; Human Rights Institutions; UN Paris Principles
The European Union has been continuously creating instruments in order to achieve the aim of ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights which is one of the core elements on which the Union was established and has been institutionalizing for the core element in question via these instruments. One of the instruments created within this framework is the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which was established in 2007 as the Union’s supranational human rights institution. The purpose of this study is to present a critical analysis of the role and efficiency of the Agency in question for the protection and promotion of human rights. Within this context, the study also aims at highlighting the model practices and contributions of the Agency, identifying its shortfalls and also putting forward recommendations for these shortfalls.
More...Keywords: Liberalism; Conflict; Peace; Trade; Commercial Liberalism; Political Economy
Political economic perspectives have been gaining ground in the discipline of international relations with the rapid economic globalization. The relationship between trade and peace is also one of the controversial debates in political-economy. There is a large body of research that demonstrates that trade reduces the likelihood of conflict. This hypothesis, also called as commercial peace or commercial pacifism in academia, is closely related to commercial liberalism that is one of the key components of liberal theories of international relations. After a survey of the historical evolution of the liberal economic/politic order in world politics, this study presents the main theoretical tenets of liberalism in international relations. In addition to this, this paper analyzes different branches of liberalisms with a specific reference to commercial liberalism. Lastly, a wide range of theoretical and empirical literature has been reviewed in order to account for the role of commercial liberalism in international political economy.
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The creating of integrated Finnish state under the rule of Russian tsar in the year 1809 was one of the turning points in the Finnish history. Since this time Finland became compact administrative unit within the Russian empire with large autonomy and self-government. Moreover since this time the Finnish national movement started to gain more ground and influence in the everyday life of Finns. We can even say, that with birth of Finnish state also emerged Finnish political selfconsciousness. The main aim of this study is to show, how the creating of the Finnish state and his borders influenced Finnish nationaly identity and self-confidence. The first part is trying to introduce the theoretical frame dealing with relation between national border and national identity mostly coming from the works of Finnish geographer Anssi Paasi. The spatial socialization of citizens with their land was among of mother tongue, church and national culture one of the corner stones of Finnish national identity. The Finnish frontier also played important role in using the dichotomy we/other, while defining Finns against other nations especially Russians. This was even raised by Finns as considering their own land as the last point of europian civilisation with the barbarian Orient behalf of their borders. One of the most common patterns used to strenghten the bond between the country and the nation, was using the national symbols, e.g. Fatherland or some mythical person, which should symbolise the whole country (Finnish maiden). Second part of the paper represent the changes of the Finnsh eastern border from the 13th century until nowadays. Especially in the 19th and 20th century played creation of the Finnish-russian border crucial role for Finnish national movement and later on also independence. In the last part of the study is described how the theoretical concepts were used in practical life in Finnland in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century by Finnish artists, writers, composers and among all the leaders of national movement. As a particular examlpe were chosen two books coming from two writers and important leaders of Finnish national renaissence in th second half of 19th century. By analysis of these two masterpieces of Finnish literature, Maamme kirja (The Book of our Land) from Zacharius Topelius and Oppikirja Suomen kansan historiassa (Schoolbook of the Finnish Nation in History) from Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, we can point out the importance of Finnish national territory and borders for national identity and self-confidence of Finns. Through these and also many other books writen by another great Finnish authors Finns were allowed to learn about rich national history and geography of their native land.
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This study focuses on the Japanese way of space formation and perception of space. The topic of Japanese space is being discussed at different levels. Broader framework is represented by space defined in terms of civilization and culture, which is being decomposed into different types of space: space qualified by geographical means, space in relation to time constant, social space and residential space such as city and village, space identified throught its heritage or the space represented by collective memory. Such a picture of Japanese space and space perceptions serves to comparison of both the differencies and similarities that leads to better understanding of mechanism of spatial strategies. For example, the presented example of Japanese city of Hiroshima as a space being representantive of collective memory (space as a place of memory) challenges to comparison with other similar places hit by a tragedy, which offers an image of experiencing the past and dealing with the history.
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The article deals with the historical development of theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of ‘space’. The emphasis is put on the relationship between historiography and ‘spatial disciplines’ (geography, philosophy) producing spatial discourses. Both in public and professional meaning, topics concerning space are only rarely associated with historiography and historical analysis. Spatial dimensions of historical processes are usually overshadowed by chronological aspects of historical development. In historiography, time predominates in the relationship between two basic (meta)physical constants of human life (time, space). However, the spatial turn and its impact on historiography increased the attention paid to the role of space. The article offers a typology of possible interconnections between historiography and space. The first type is represented by geographical determinism – the historical development is influenced by nature predispositions and it’s perceived as a result of interaction between mankind and its geographical surroundings. The second type is concentrated to the human perception of space in the course of history – the space is not only physically given fact, but also symbolic entity and social construction. This approach has predominated since the onset of the cultural turn in social sciences. The third type is linked to the field of historical methodology. The geographical extension, spatial delimitation and borders of historical phenomena represent the basic questions – the outcomes of research depend on the applied geographical scale. The analysis of single historical process researched within different spatial units (civilization, state, region) can lead to divergent results. Despite the prevailing emphasis put on the symbolic aspects of space (type 2), the future conceptual development is questionable. The historical research of space as social construction can’t be performed without the attention paid to the historical dynamics and transformations of physical and geographical space.
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The chapter is focused on cultural differences in spatial dimension. The principal question is whether Central Eastern Europe was perceived by early English travellers as culturally different and in what terms. As for the methodology, the author is using the term of “culturally different space”. Also, labelling the area as “Central Eastern Europe” is questioned and the meaning of it in the chapter is explained. Besides, the esthetical values in perception of landscape are discussed. All in all, the most attention is paid to textual analysis of the seventeenth and eighteenth century travel writings in regard to perception of cultural differences in the area of Central Eastern Europe, such as stoves, feather-beds, or even worse, straw to lie on and other images of inconvenience and discomfort. Further, the images of female beauty and its varieties are analysed in terms of cultural differences.
More...The Romanian "outlaws" (read thieves), the equivalent of Bonnie and Clyde: Ghiţă and Crina were operating in Germany.
More...Keywords: Horia Roman Patapievici;
Writers about the personality and work of H.-R. Patapievici.
More...Comments and analysis on Mircea Ivanescu's writing.
More...Ion Pop: - Ion Muresan translated in French; Sanda Cordos: - Radu Mares.
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