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Disrupting states’ and societies’ capacity of functioning, turning to advantage a wide range of instruments is one of the objectives of what it is known on a large scale after the Ukrainian crisis as “hybrid warfare”. The present paper is an analysis of the security dynamic in the Western Balkan region from this perspective, having as a hypothesis the fact that this space can be turned to advantage as lever for heightening insecurity at European level. In this respect, the article includes a brief overview on the main European security trends, as well as an insight on the Russian Federation’s approach on Western Balkans not only in terms of strategic documents, but also in geopolitical studies. The region’s vulnerability is subsequently analysed both from the perspective of the conflict relations between the actors in this space, and in relation to the evolution of these actors in international barometers showing the level of institutions’ stability and strength.
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This paper develops the argument supporting the meaningfulness of the Wider Black Sea Region (WBSR) construct, and explaining the necessity of understanding the regional dynamics in order to find solutions to the problems with which countries and people in the area confront. It concludes that Western standards, ideas and values offer the framework for progress in WBSR. Within this context, opening to Western influence offers a great opportunity for WBSR, bringing to the forefront the soft power of the EU and all of the European and Euro-Atlantic instruments of money, legitimacy and know-how.
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Intra- or extra-regional institutionalized regional cooperation facilitates the joint approach to specific issues of countries that generate or can generate and/or export insecurity to other states of the region, but also beyond. Moreover, intra-regional cooperation between countries geographically close to each other supports cross-border dialogue to materialize common economic, political or environmental interests and the development of capacities to maintain or achieve an optimal regional security environment to ensure the prosperity of states and their citizens. MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is a particular case for intra-regional cooperation. Although the region has the prerequisites for its broad development, due to the its ethnicreligious factor and the reserves of oil and gas of most of its states, its ratio of integration and regionalization, even in the classical economic area, is presented by specialists as limited, due to the classical authoritarian forms of government and the divergent interests of the states of the region with different Islamic orientations. In this paper, we analyse the trend in MENA’s intraregional cooperation following the Arab Spring events, starting from the hypothesis that the abolition of authoritarian governments results in states opening towards democracy and dialogue.
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The technological boom recorded at the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third one has led to major, unprecedented, mutations in the way people communicate, interrelate and interact on every level of their personal, social and professional lives. Technological inventions and gadgets have subtly, unnoticeably, but indispensably infiltrated into everyday reality. The article aims at analyzing the extent to which applications, software and websites specifically designed to create and disseminate social media content - in audio, video, text and other formats - between members of social groups can pose challenges or opportunities for the specific processes of the intelligence cycle.
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In the Romania’s Defence White Paper for the 2015-2019 timeframe, it is emphasized that, for the defence of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, one of the most important tasks under the responsibility of the Romanian Army is granting Host Nation Support, to back up the military actions that are taking place on national territory by the armed forces belonging to allied states and NATO partners. Throughout this article, we have dealt with the main specific elements intended for granting Host Nation Support on the national territory, namely: the goods and services that can be offered to the military within the foreign allied forces participating in military actions, the declared Romanian facilities, the data contained in the Romanian HNS Capabilities Catalogue and in the Romanian HNS Data Base and we have determined the directions of action to be followed, in order to modernize the process of granting Host Nation Support by Romania.
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This paper analyses the actions taken by stakeholders following the United States’ alleged intention for a full troop drawdown from Afghanistan, which drew regional and international attention, thus facilitating a negotiating framework for attaining an Afghan peace agreement. Taliban Movement is the main player in brokering a political resolution to end the Afghan war, but, at domestic level, the negotiating forum needs to embody Afghan government officials and civil society minority representatives. A comprehensive and lasting Afghan peace pact demands the implication of external stakeholders which have contributed to the peace talks by orchestrating consultative summits or persuading specific actors to step into peace debates. The paper will endeavour to outline the geopolitical interests held by these players within Afghanistan and the Central Asian region, all of them struggling to entirely preserve and expand them to their advantage. Thus, it is difficult to reach a robust Afghan peace deal that satisfies all sides.
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Regional security issues generate more and more concerns in the international community. The increasing interdependence on the international arena makes it impossible to ignore security issues its actors are confronting with. One of the regions that deserves a thorough insight is Southeast Asia, especially Myanmar, due to the events that have taken place here lately. We will primarily focus on interethnic conflicts resulted from religious differences. For the paper’s scientific consistency, we will use the method of the three triangles of Galtung that deals with the dimensions of conflict, violence and peace. Avoiding, at first, to emphasize the security issue, Galtung proposes a different approach than his contemporaries, arguing in favour of improving relations between the parties. This new method is based on the development of links between the actors involved, focusing on conflict resolution. The paper will encompass three perspectives of analysis, respectively: the first focuses on contradictions, attitudes and behaviours, during the conflict, the second deals with the three dimensions of violence – direct, structural and cultural – and the third triangle examines the possibilities for solving the conflict through peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding.
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The paper provides an analysis of the balance of military expenditures in 2019, mainly allocated for the replacement of outdated military equipment with state-of-the-art equipment, with an emphasis on NATO, USA, China, and Russia.
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The paper analyzes NATO events and actions in the last quarter of 2019, emphasizing on those that questioned its cohesion, as the Leaders Meeting in London (3-4 of December, 2019), also pointing out topics related to the Alliance's development directions reaffirmed by the London Declaration. As NATO cannot be analysed by referring exclusively to the organization itself, but in correlation with its member states, at the same time, the paper addresses issues that dominated the international agenda during the second half of 2019: US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Turkey’s actions worldwide, allocation of 2% from GDP for defence spending, but also the statements of the French President regarding the Alliance’s present and future evolution.
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This paper analyzes events that happened in the EU in the second half of 2019, that show Europe’s vulnerabilities. Among them, the manner in which Brexit would become a reality, the repercussions of UK’s withdrawal from the Union, the possibility other states could follow the same course of action are just some examples of the topics the paper approaches.
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