Around the Bloc: Around the Bloc - NATO Wants to Play as Moscow Sulks
As the alliance’s largest maneuvers since the Cold War get under way, Russia has vowed to respond.
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As the alliance’s largest maneuvers since the Cold War get under way, Russia has vowed to respond.
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The article contains an analysis of the consequences of unequitable development and economic growth in different countries; the authors assumes that the reason of this phenomenon is the difference in innovation activity of the economic agents which results in unequal growth; according to authors this is the result of ‘creative destruction’ principle of Joseph Schumpeter.
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According to the first part of Section 5 of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, “public provocation to commit a terrorist offence” means the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, where such conduct, whether or not directly advocating terrorist offences, causes a danger that one or more such offences may be committed. On 26 April 2018, in Latvia, amendments were made to the Criminal Law, which improved the regulatory framework in relation to the terrorist offenses and related crimes, including the acquittal of terrorism, invitation to terrorism and terrorism threats. The article aims to initiate a debate on potential problems related to the application of the Section 79. of the Criminal Law. The author offers his vision of the new regulatory framework application problems.
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Russia has always carried out activities which strengthened its geostrategic position in the world. When the international order was transformed after “the cold war”, Russia began to perceive the post-soviet territories as its closest zone of influence. After the break out of the war in Ukraine and then the annexation of Crimea, the Baltic states and Poland had no doubt concerning a direct threat from Russia. Currently European countries are aware that Russia wages wars on many fronts. Although they have not been actually declared, they are really taking place. It is a cybernetic, diplomatic, hybrid and propaganda war. However, the greatest threat is the nuclear arsenal that Russia possesses. Stability in the region is ensured by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose policy is a response to the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation, which threaten the security of the countries of the Baltic Sea region.
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The paper represents a study of the process of radicalization as that of ideological socialization by which personality is transformed from a normal to extra-normal one (Sprinzak) due to the use of violence without moral restraints (Schmid), especially in the case of suicidal terrorists. Since it is a very complex phenomenon, with numerous social, ideological, cultural and other causes, the paper is focused on one possible model analyzed with respect to the referential (not all-inclusive but relevant) theoretical works,elaborated in the novel The Terrorist by John Updike which in itself, with its open ending, points to many other possibilities, conceptualizations and categorizations. The goal of this paper is to inquire into,by critical reading as appropriate method, a literary-sociological construct which is here primarily defined as a form of micro analysis of psycho-social structure of the personality of a potential suicidal terrorist.Starting from Sprinzak, Moghadam and other theorists, the radicalization process is interpreted as unfolding in phases, from the initial crisis of confidence till the final suicidal or/and homicidal action within a respective environment. A somewhat similar format is implied in some of the aspects of the above-mentioned novel, an engaged literary work written with the intention to support literature’s hope to serve wider culture (Batchelor). This “wider culture” is represented in an extremely critical way as well as an in-depth analysis of the profile of a potential terrorist illustrating the theoretical assumptions of the radicalization process. In this way the writer becomes an analyst as well giving his own contribution to the psychological analysis of the phenomenon but with the remark that his work, while merging fiction, psycho-sociological and cultural studies, also becomes open for debate and all sorts ofdifferent interpretations.
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Bellingcat say a Russian military intelligence agent may have helped plan poison attacks in the UK and Bulgaria.
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This paper is about borders and about the culture of those who live by the border. Lead by the goal to determine, as precisely as possible, the space of their security and complete freedom, all living beings try to limit their world, and it has multiple consequences. One of them is the crea tion of various, both visible and invisible, borders. Every life, as well as existence and life in general, is marked by at least two borders: birth and death. All human borders are relative and transient, except for death as the border of life, and that is why we perceive it not as something human, but as something absolutely anti-human. Apart from the drive to possess a territory, togetherness also re quires borders. A border in the name of the collective, or a community, is always founded on some difference between that and other commu nities. That difference is always proclaimed to be important, if not the most important, although it can be entirely symbolic in its nature. As a rule, borders are seen as something dangerous, unpleasant and unsafe, so everyone tries to cross them as quickly as possible. One stays at the border only if he has to, and only while he has to. Space at the border is the space where a crisis is always expected, and that makes it not only the space of bigger or lesser, but also of perpetual virtual crisis. Therefore, there is not much investment in the border and border areas, so the border spaces are frequently poorer than they should be. 24 The border is not just a narrow imagined line, as jurists and pol iticians tend to present it. It is also an elastically defined space around a formally permanent, but actually very swiveling line. This movability of the border is its very important and permanent feature, which is usu ally not recognized by those who established the border, and empha sized by those who want to remake it. The whole is protected at the border. More precisely, the whole would not exist without the border. The border extends to the point where someone’s power of possession is indisputable. No one, on either side of the border, is too small or hopelessly weak, because if they were, there would be no border. The border is established between the dissimilar. It is not only the end, but also a beginning, more precisely, it is the end of one’s world and the beginning of someone else’s. Although we tend to favor everything that is ours, and to, in the name of our own safety and other benefits see the end of our own space as the end of everything safe and good, the border is not the place where something ends, but where something begins, and that something can be good as well. Therefore the border is the point of encounter, as much as of conflict.
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Authors argue that in period between 2008 and 2010 there was an opportunity to create a stable European security and political order based on consensus of the key political actors that could have resulted in strengthening of the UN and OSCE role in European political affairs. Interests of the key actors all went down to the same direction, pointing that there is a need for stability and negotiations about political future of the European continent. The opportunity was recognised by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who proposed organizing the conference on establishing a “new European security architecture”. After rejection of the Russian proposal by the USA, Moscow started implementing its own strategy of establishing new political order in Europe with the single goal of promoting its own interests. Being rejected by the West, Russia considered itself no longer moraly obligated by the needs and interests of the other actors of European politics. Anti-Russian campaign in the West contributed to the sentiment of frustration in Russia. The same was with economic sanctions that were introduced in later period. One of the consequences of the Moscow’s new foreign policy approach was a number of breaches of international law as well as a number of provocations towards western countries. Authors argue that Kremlin would never have taken actions like this, if it had not been repeatedly rejected by the West in practicaly all of its initiatives. As a result of renewed Moscow−Washington tensions, Europe has become less stable and the trend is towards further escalation. With revisionist Russia, as a strogest military power in Europe, largest and most populated country, smaller states have a lot more complicated international environment to understand and adapt to. Environment has been extremely polarized. The balance has shifted from earlier hegemonic stability in Europe to unstable balance of power combined with “proxy” wars of Cold War superpowers in Ukraine and Siria. Situation like this is in accordance with Russia’s interests in a way that it proves West’s inability to govern international processes and solve big international problems. Authors conclude that Russia has regained its former great power status on its own, and stands as one of three key international actors in European politics, next to USA and EU. Again, as in 2008, there is the need for consensus, but this time Russia will be much less ready to make compromises with its’ own national interests.
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Yemen is witnessing what is often described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the World. Even in the past, it was usually considered to be the poorest Arab country, but the problems dramatically escalated since the beginning of the Saudi-led intervention which started in March 2015. Alī Abdullah Ṣāliḥ ruled the country between 1978 and 2011, but in the following years he returned on the political scene and once again became a very important figure in socio-political life of Yemen. On 4 December 2017, Ṣāliḥ was assassinated by a group called Anṣār Allah thus opening a new chapter of South Arabian politics. This paper gives the review of Ṣāliḥ’s policy from the beginning of his presidency until his death, with a goal to explain his contribution to the creation and escalation of the ongoing crisis in Yemen. It is based on the results of two field studies, interviews as well as on the comprehensive analysis of pre-existing studies on this topic.
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Based on everything said, we may conclude that obvious progress has been made in establishing of certain types of cooperation of specialized civil society organizations with security services in Serbia. Based on available data and internet presentations of the mentioned actors (Atlantic Council, Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Belgrade Center for Security Policy, etc.), some forms of realized cooperation may be observed. It, for instance, is reflected in organizing a public discussion on the proposal for the Law on Personal Data Protection, Law on VBA and VOA, Data Secrecy Law, Draft National Security Strategy, with participation of representatives of security services at gatherings organized by non-governmental organization, or in study visits of activists of these organizations to security services. More public nature of the work of security services is in a large degree burdened by the very nature of the job. The fact that, fulfilling their legal obligation, they regularly update information on work, contributes to the claim that a serious progress has been made in this field in the last ten years. The fact that the Ministry of Defense received an award for the most update and most complete information in 2011 from civil society organizations speaks about this quite sufficiently. The fact that BIA has authorized a person (in the rank of director`s advisor) to answer questions by those who require information, shows that the set legal norms are respected. However, certain problems exist, and they are most expressed in certain imprecise and unclear legal provisions which protect confidentiality and secrecy of collected data and information. This problem cannot be solved by security services, nor the media, or civil society organizations. They must be solved by the state, by correcting and removing all dilemmas in the valid regulations, and enabling everyone to realize their constitutional and every other right in a legal manner.
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The author discuses the position of the army and the commanding cadres in the countries of Eastern Europe which have been passing through radical transformation during recent years. In different countries there have been different motives for the army not to intervene into the processes of political democratization but they have all abstained from stopping those processes by force and in doing so were also encouraged by the Warsaw Pact, namely by the USSR. It is difficult to foretell the future role of the military factor in those countries as well as the transformation of the armies themselves (political orientation, composition and command, changes in strategy). To a great extent these will depend on the normalization of the processes of democratization, as well as on general global, and, in the first place, European power relationships.
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The processes of radical change in the countries of Eastern Europe result in the dissolving of old regional military, political, and economic systems of integration (in terms of blocs or of bipolarity) imposing the task of finding new foundations and forms of European cooperation and security. The present condition of European relations is marked by asymmetrical interdependence and an imbalance of interests which produce new potential sources of instability. The problems of economic development, the explosiveness of the national questions in the federal states of the East and at other locuses of crisis, all these will require new mechanisms for the solving of crisis in Europe.
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The neutral Central Asian state rarely comments on reports of tension along its border with Afghanistan.
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Almost 500 pages and accounts beamed misleading information across Eastern Europe and Central Asia
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Faced with a growing Russian military threat in the Black Sea, Romania has decided to increase its defense spending and modernize is military capabilities. In 2017 Romania began an ambitious ten year re-armament program worth € 8.9 billion, part of the pledge made to its NATO partners to spend 2% of GDP on defense. This analysis takes a look at the naval refurbishment program that Romania will undertake in 2017-2026. It examines the components of the naval modernization program from the perspective of the capabilities they will offer to the Romanian Naval Forces and of how they compare with current and future naval threats in the Black Sea. While the level of ambition reflected in these programs varies a lot, the current acquisitions will reinforce the deterrence value of Romania’s fleet.
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The security situation to the east of NATO and EU borders remains extremely complex. Unresolved conflicts in this region are frozen or are in a desirable state of solving. In addition, Moscow adds new crises and conflicts to those in the Republic of Moldova – the Transnistrian conflict, Georgia - South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in the Azerbaijani conflict. This is the war in the East of Ukraine. All this creates new security risks and threats to the Euro-Atlantic area, starting from the eastern flank of the two organizations. Can these conflicts be resolved? Can all these turbulences be eliminated? In this general security atmosphere, can we hope in the short and even medium that the necessary conditions can be created to negotiate at least a new security system? Answers must be prudent to the questions above. However, for the time being, neither Russia nor the West appear to be able to advance and negotiate a coherent strategy of redefining a new security system in Eastern Europe and in the Wider Black Sea region.
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Derived from the current situation of the international security environment, the “White Paper on Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr” (White Paper 2016) sets standards for Germany’s security policy and defines the mission and tasks of the Bundeswehr. The current development lines are implemented in the “Conception of the Bundeswehr” (KdB) for the german defense department. In this regard, the Bundeswehr is focusing on the future. The new KdB is a long-term policy statement and it stands as a military part of the overall defense planning of the Federal Republic of Germany at home and abroad in interaction with the documents of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and other responsible departments for the security architecture of Germany. The KdB translates the Germany’s will, formulated in the White Paper 2016, to take on more responsibility in the world in guidelines for action for the entire Bundeswehr under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Defense. Based on the Guiding Principles and other planning parameters, the KdB makes qualitative specifications for designing the “Bundeswehr’s capability profile” consisting of military and civilian capabilities and the future development areas. The KdB is the starting point for all conceptual work and planning. The conclusions of the White Paper 2016, as well as the turning points to the future equipment of the Bundeswehr with materials, personnel and finances are the response to the profound changes in the security situation, in Europe and in the world.
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The European Army is not a new concept. The idea was launched by Winston Churchill in a speech held on August 1950 at the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe. Since then, it was a constant subject underpinning key moments of contemporary European political integration. In the present context, due to tensions and evolutions, it advances key enquiries about the European foreign and defense policy, transatlantic relations and, most significantly, the central significance and purpose of the European Union. The paper focuses on the prospects for European defense and security into the twenty-first century and the role Romania could have in such a scenario. It follows recent events and it seeks to address the current Euro-Atlantic puzzle, with emphasis on previous attempts: the Pleven Plan, the Lisbon Treaty, CESDP and past and present US hopes.
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The paper will seek to decipher the significance of deterrence in the Black Sea region and assess the main challenges which shape the dynamic of deterrence in the region. By this logic, the paper will examine the evolving military balance in the Black Sea basin, the impact of Russian’s build-up in the region, the complicated web of regional security agendas- especially important being Turkey’s growing strategic unpredictability-, as well as the main dilemmas facing the West in forging a more consolidated defense posture. The research will be built around two main hypothesis of analysis. The first one assumes the fact that the Black Sea area became an arena of the geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West in conjunction with Russia’s growing military reach and power projection potential which has already created a strategic imbalance in the region. The second one considers that the regional power games and the complex security agendas of the main players in the Black Sea make the regional dynamic highly unpredictable and complicate the Western deterrence posture on the entire eastern flank.
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There is a strong preoccupation within the Chinese political elites to enhance and accelerate the reform of the armed forces in order to prepare the country for its new global role and defend its national interests. The rivalry with southern neighbours for islands and maritime area in South China Sea, the difficult relations with India and geopolitical competition with Japan, also the systemic rivalry with the USA push Chinese elites to strive for a strong military force. The People s Liberation Army is also a guarantee for the Chinese Communist Party, the leading force of the state and society, that a possible popular surge against the regime could be quelled, thus ensuring the stability and social peace within the country. The problem is that an armed force destined for internal strife is not shaped the same way as a force aimed at foreign rivals and power projection in the neighboring areas.
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