![HELSINŠKE SVESKE №19: Između načela i prakse - položaj "malih" i "velikih" manjina u Srbiji.](/api/image/getbookcoverimage?id=document_cover-page-image_534651.jpg)
We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
If the foreign policy of any state is to be successful it must have its own form, its own language and be part of public – institutionally framed – discourse. There is, however, no such ‘institutional umbrella’ covering all those responsible for the formulation and implementation of our foreign policy as well as those in Slovakia who are not indifferent to it. Moreover, there is often little will to open such an umbrella ‘over’ our foreign policy. Even the political parties do not pay much attention to foreign policy and thus issues of foreign policy are only occasionally part of the general public discourse. It is, however, the open, coherent and constant exchange of views, opinions, know-how, arguments from experience and/or long-term plans among the groups mentioned that play a crucial role in planning foreign policy. All of these reasons keep convincing us that we need to regularly evaluate where Slovak foreign policy currently is, which important events occurred in the preceding year and what challenges lie ahead of Slovakia in the near future. The Yearbook is in this regard a unique forum primarily focused on Slovakia´s foreign policy. The book provides space for those who make decisions and practically implement them as well as to those who care a lot about the future of foreign policy, such as researchers active in academic circles, think-tanks or non-governmental organizations. The Yearbook is a unique project entering another decade of its existence. It has been contributing for eleven years – and successfully, we are convinced – to the development of a tradition of regular evaluation and analysis of Slovak foreign policy and supporting the cultivation of foreign policy thinking in Slovakia. The publication represents an important, yet at the same time, solitary, and indeed limited, printed book resource keeping record of the development of Slovakia’s foreign policy and the discussion on its further orientation. The Yearbook assesses 2009 as a year rich in events. In 2009, Slovakia celebrated the fifth anniversary of her EU and NATO membership as well as the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. At the same time it was the very first year of entering the Euro Zone. 2009 will also be remembered as a year of important institutional changes within the EU as well as in its practical operation; a year in which we once again elected our representatives to the European Parliament or one in which the Union got its new President and Foreign Minister. Implementation of the Eastern Partnership program was commenced and the integration project in the Balkans continued. In 2009 discussion on NATO’s new Strategic Concept started, while that on Afghanistan still continued. Within the OSCE Slovakia was very actively participating in the organization’s revitalization. It was also a year when debate on mitigation of the impacts of the economic and energy crisis and their associated challenges predominated. A year, then, of another stage in the improvement of the institutional framework of Slovak foreign policy. In the context of all of these events and their impacts on our foreign policy, the second decade of the Yearbook opens with an assessment of our line of action and a presentation of our objectives and interests in the international environment, continues with an analysis of the realization of the priority areas of our foreign policy and is concluded with an assessment of the efficacy of the instruments required for its implementation. The analytical assessment is again supplemented by an evaluation/ presentation of the Foreign Ministry’s representatives. The Yearbook offers all this to the somewhat limited degree characteristic of such publications. The Yearbook opens for the third time with a survey presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. His text evaluates and presents the problems and aspects of Slovakia’s foreign policy that are analyzed in depth by other authors in the Yearbook. Thus the reader is given a unique opportunity to examine the ‘same issue’ from different angles in one publication. The expert section of the Yearbook starts with a text analyzing Slovakia’s performance in an international environment. The first contribution, which by tradition is that of Vladimír Bilčík of the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SPFA), covers the crucial events of Slovakia’s performance in the EU – the issue of representation and operation of the key EU institutions as well as a reflection on the first five years of Slovakia’s EU membership. It analyzes the positions and tasks of the Slovak Republic before and during the European Parliament elections, and in the creation of the European Commission as well as those connected with the process of adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. It also offers a brief summary of the key issues important for Slovakia’s successful performance within the EU in the upcoming period. The security aspects of our foreign policy are assessed by Matúš Korba from the Center for Security Studies. In his text he analyzes the growing disproportion between the political ambitions of Slovakia within NATO and our real military capabilities that is connected with the internal crisis of the reform process within the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, which was even further exacerbated in 2009. The OSCE revitalization, the future of the European security debate and Slovakia’s role in it are all evaluated by Marcel Peško, the Permanent Representative and Head of the Permanent Mission to International Organizations in Vienna. The section on Slovakia’s performance in an international environment is concluded by a contribution by Milan Lapin, a prominent Slovak climatologist. In his article attention is mostly paid to the assessment of knowledge and activities that were carried out in 2009 and relate to climate changes and variability, including the Fifth National Communication of the Slovak Republic on Climate Change. The second part of the book, devoted to the priorities of our foreign policy, opens with a text by the Director-General for Economic Cooperation and ODA at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic Radomír Boháč. In his analysis, he focuses on the fulfillment of a re-established priority of our foreign policy – the economic dimension of Slovak diplomacy – in the context of the global financial and economic crisis and the challenges stemming from it. Urban Rusnák, Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic’s project on the External Energy Security of the Slovak Republic, reflects on the gas crisis of January 2009 as well as measures taken in the field of Slovak legislation and infrastructure on the level of national government as well as on the EU level. The analysis of Slovakia’s Central European activities was, as always, written by Tomáš Strážay, an RC SPFA analyst, who reassesses the cooperation principles and mechanisms aimed at rendering cooperation more intensive and more efficient. He also identifies and evaluates the most important challenges faced by the V4 presidency taken up by Slovakia. The key aspects of the Eastern Partnership program, its bilateral and multilateral components, Slovakia’s involvement in it as well as our bilateral activities in relation to the Eastern Partnership states are presented by Juraj Marušiak, a researcher at the Institute of Political Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The final expert section devoted to instruments of foreign policy opens with a contribution by Ján Mihálik from Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia (PDCS) and Peter Brezáni from the RC SFPA, who concentrate their attention on the state of one of the most important bilateral instruments in Slovak foreign policy – development cooperation. The authors offer their perspective on practical fulfillment of objectives set within the official ODA documents, attempt to provide a summary of activities relating to Slovak development cooperation in 2009 as well as a set of recommendations intended to increase the quality and efficiency of Slovak ODA. The expert section concludes with a text by Ondrej Gažovič from the Institute of European Studies and International Relations of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava, who evaluates the year 2009 as a year that had brought several factors contributing to clarification of this part of the foreign policy concept against the background of conditions in the Slovak Republic as well as to its institutionalization and practical implementation. The expert chapters are traditionally supplemented by annexes such as a chronology of important foreign policy events, a list of international treaties, information on the structure and representatives of state bodies operating in foreign policy, a list of diplomatic missions and representatives of the Slovak Republic abroad, a list of diplomatic corps in the Slovak Republic, information on military missions abroad etc. We firmly believe that the first issue of the Yearbook in the second decade of its existence will once again find a readership and serve all those who are interested in the past, present and future of Slovakia and her foreign policy. In conclusion, we would kindly like to express our gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic for its cooperation on this project and its support as well as for the fact that thanks to this support we are able to continue building on this much needed tradition.
More...
The very first Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic, published in 2000 and mapping the year 1999, outlined the aim of this unique project as follows: “The demand of society to regularly publish a Yearbook containing opinions and assessments of the state’s foreign policy stemmed from the need to record the development of foreign policy, during a crucial period in the country’s development, in a form accessible to the expert public […] In Slovakia, the requirement to publish the Yearbook is further bolstered by two factors: by an excessive dependency of foreign policy trends upon the current government coalition […], as well as the lack of an official almanac of foreign policy documents. From this perspective, it is a shame that the first issue of the Yearbook is only being published in the eighth year of Slovakia’s existence. We can only take solace in the motto – ‘better late than never’. Probably the best evidence that this aim has been successfully fulfilled is the fact that this year, the Yearbook celebrates its tenth anniversary. During the first decade of its existence, it built and maintained a specific position in public discussion on foreign policy and remained a unique and original source of information, opinions, knowledge, experience, viewpoints, and arguments of the actors themselves, academics, analysts, or journalists with the goal of improving the quality of the decisions made in foreign policy, in order to best serve the interests of this country. We are still convinced that it is necessary to maintain this tradition of regularly evaluating, in book form, where Slovak foreign policy currently is, which important events occurred the preceding year, and what challenges lie ahead of Slovakia in the near future. These were, and still remain, the main goals and objectives of this edition as well and we believe that they will be the same in future ones. In the course of its 10 year life, the Yearbook has undergone a number of changes. It started out as a publication from the foreign policy review conference and then gradually became a publication in its own right, with its own clearly defined structure and base of authors. The Yearbook has had two publishers, three editors, and six different colors on the cover with two graphic motifs. It has been published 10 times in Slovak and 9 times in English. Both language variations came to 3,771 pages, with the contributions of 93 different authors in 139 analyses filling 1,227 pages in the case of the Slovak version and 1,161 pages in the English one. The annexes ‘filled’ 637 or 606 pages respectively. Among the authors were two presidents of the Slovak Republic, four speakers of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, one prime minister of the Slovak Republic, four deputy prime ministers, three ministers of foreign affairs, five ministers of defense and one minister of finance of the Slovak Republic, one high representative and EU special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one representative of the World Bank, eleven opposition and governing coalition MPs and chairmen of the Committees of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, eight academics, twenty-eight analysts, twenty-seven representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, and two journalists/publicists, while some appeared in the Yearbook more than once holding different posts. Eight proofreaders, ten reviewers, and fifteen members of the editorial board cooperated on the Slovak version. The English version was compiled by sixteen translators and seven different proofreaders. This year’s Yearbook assesses the year 2008 and Slovak foreign policy in an already established thematic structure. It evaluates our conduct in the international environment, the realization of the priority areas of our foreign policy, as well as the efficacy of its instruments and the institutional framework required for its implementation. Based on positive feedback from readers, this year we have also included the insights of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the introduction. The Minister looked back over the past 12 months from the perspective of the person bearing responsibility for the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in this electoral term. The text evaluates the problems and aspects of Slovakia’s foreign policy, which are analyzed in depth by other authors in the Yearbook. Thus, the reader is given a unique opportunity to peruse the same ‘issue’ from different angles in one publication. The expert section of the Yearbook opens with a contribution by Vladimír Bilčík from the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) who provides an overview of the fulfillment of the main political, economic, and institutional priorities of the Slovak Republic as a member state of the EU. He analyzes Slovakia’s international behavior, offering a cross-section analysis of the fundamental political priorities of the Slovak Republic in the EU, and also assesses the ability of the country to formulate and promote its interests within the EU. The security policy aspects of our foreign policy are analyzed by Matúš Korba from the Center for Security Studies. In his analysis, he identifies how Slovakia was able to cope in the first five years of its membership in NATO with the challenges of actively participating in the political activities of the Alliance, the military operations of crisis management and the tasks it is currently fulfilling within a transforming NATO. The section focusing on Slovakia’s performance within the international environment is concluded by the text by Martina Hrvolová from the Human Rights, Council of Europe, OSCE, and Minorities Depart ment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, who analyzes our first chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The second part of the book, devoted to the priorities of our foreign policy, opens with a contribution by the Director General for Economic Cooperation and Official Development Assistance of the Slovak Foreign Ministry, Radomír Boháč. In his analysis, he focuses on the fulfillment of the re-established priority of Slovak foreign policy – the economic dimension of Slovak diplomacy – in the context of the global financial and economic crisis and the challenges stemming from it. Ján Petrovič, Director of the Energy Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, concentrates on an area that is crucial to Slovak policy and that of the European Union – energy security. Freelance journalist Július Lőrincz offers a perspective on Slovak activities in the Western Balkans in 2008 in three areas – economic diplomacy, development assistance, and the issue of Kosovo. The analysis of Slovakia’s Central European activities was, as always, written by Tomáš Strážay, analyst of the RC SFPA, who summarizes the priorities of two Visegrad presidencies – the Czech and the Polish, and focuses on the problematic points of the agenda as well as Slovakia’s contributions during both presidencies. The Director and Head of the RC SFPA Eastern Europe research program, Alexander Duleba, offers a ‘picture’ of the key events, in addition to a brief analysis on the development of Slovakia’s relations with three eastern neighbors – Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in 2008. The final expert section of the book is devoted to the institutional framework and foreign policy instruments, and opens with a contribution by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Marcel Peško. In his chapter, he looks back at the year the institutional reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was implemented. The expert section of the Yearbook concludes with a contribution by Vladimír Benč and Peter Brezáni from the RC SFPA, who concentrate their attention on the state of the most important bilateral instrument in Slovak foreign policy in 2008 – development assistance. The authors offer their perspective on the institutional and legislative changes, and attempt to provide a summary of the activities concerning Slovak development assistance in 2008. The expert chapters are traditionally supplemented by annexes, such as the chronology of important foreign policy events, selected political documents, a list of international treaties, information on the structure and representatives of the state bodies operating in foreign policy, a list of the diplomatic missions and representatives of the Slovak Republic abroad, the diplomatic corps of the Slovak Republic, information on military missions abroad, and so on. We firmly believe that the tenth edition of the Yearbook will once again find a readership and serve all those who are interested in the past, present, and future of Slovakia and Slovak foreign policy. In conclusion, we would like to express our gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic for its cooperation on this project and its support, and for the fact that thanks to this cooperation we are able to continue building this much needed tradition.
More...
Year 2006 was indeed exceptional for both Slovakia’s foreign policy and the publication itself. In June, after the general elections, the new government was formed. It was the first time since 1998 the complete change of the political power took place at the same time as the change of foreign policy creator took place. It is also the first time the Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic assesses and reflects Slovak foreign policy issues other than Dzurinda’s government. Nevertheless, the field of foreign policy was perhaps the only one within which continuity was expected. Furthermore, the Government’s Manifesto does not differ that much in terms of values from the previous government’s manifesto and that was further confirmed by the nomination of an experienced diplomat, Ján Kubiš, for the position of foreign minister. However, certain dissonance between the rhetoric and implementation has been provoking the discussion from the very beginning. At the beginning of April 2007, the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) attempted for the first time to assess the foreign policy direction of Slovakia after the new government came into power. RC SFPA organized its Annual Review Conference on Foreign Policy named Continuities and Changes in Slovakia’s Foreign Policy. The name of the conference itself, somehow stemming from the post-election discourse, caused quite a vivid discussion. However, the individual presenters constantly substituted and by or in the title. This also might have contributed to our decision to continue with the discussion on the pages of Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 2006 in broader scope. The book analyzes the 2006 foreign policy within three main fields – EU, security policy, and regional and bilateral agenda. The first part traditionally focuses on Slovakia’s performance in the EU. It opens with the contribution of Erik Láštic from Comenius University’s Faculty of Arts. In his paper, he analyzes the institutional background of Slovakia in the EU. Since this topic was not discussed in previous editions, the text goes beyond the framework of 2006. The article of RC SFPA’s research fellow Aneta Világi reflects the domestic (non)debate on the issue of the Treaty Establishing the Constitution for Europe. The RC SFPA director and head of its Eastern Europe research program Alexander Duleba, based on his analysis of the EU Eastern Policy, recommends the establishment of two-level strategy and bridging ENP with Russia policy The second part also partially resembles the last year’s structure with its two analyses focusing on the key security policy agendas, i.e. Slovakia’s performance within the UN Security Council and NATO. The former was elaborated by the head of RC SFPA’s International Security research program Ivo Samson. His detailed analysis focuses on the scope of SR’s activities in the UN SC, Slovakia’s participation in creating of resolutions and voting, the presidency itself as well as the key agenda of the security sector reform. The transformation and developments within the NATO are surveyed by Matúš Korba of Center for Security Studies, a Bratislava-based NGO. In his study, included the analysis of Slovakia’s performance in the Alliance, the participation in the crisis management missions or the challenges the SR will face. Unlike previous years, the 2006 Yearbook has a part dealing with regional and bilateral relations, i.e. it focuses on the priorities and tools of Slovakia’s foreign policy. The chapter is opened by the article on Slovak-Hungarian relations which are, according to the author, full of ‘media convenient’ topics. The paper was written by Kálmán Petőcz of Forum Minority Research Institute, a Šamorín-based NGO. Similarly discussed and ‘convenient’ topic was also energy policy and security. Independent analyst, Karel Hirman, focuses his analysis on 2006 Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute, new Russian strategy and its impact on Slovakia. Slovakia’s presidency over the V4 dominated the regional agenda even though the functioning of V4 was to a large extent influenced by the domestic political developments in its member states. This topic was elaborated by Juraj Marušiak of Institute of Political Science of Slovak Academy of Science. Milan Šagát of Bratislavabased Pontis Foundation prepared a contribution on a complex and complicated issue of Slovakia’s policy towards the Western Balkans. In his paper, he stresses the fact that the folowing period will be of crucial importance for Slovakia’s policy and that it needs to be more diversified and better-balanced towards the whole region. Three authors Marián Čaučík, Zuzana Krátka and Ľudmila Pastorová focused on the issue of the most important bilateral foreign policy tool of Slovakia in 2006 – the development assistance. Their contribution deals with the activities of Slovak organizations within sectoral and territorial priorities as well as with the institutional and legislative changes of Slovak ODA. Traditionally, the Yearbook includes annexes such as the chronology of the most important events in the Slovak foreign policy in 2006, selected political documents and other information (e.g. the structure and representatives of the MFA SR, a list of diplomatic missions and representatives of SR abroad, the SR diplomatic bodies, army missions abroad etc.). It is up to the reader to decide whether there is continuity or discontinuity in Slovakia’s foreign policy. However, I strongly believe that all texts will contribute to the debate on further direction of Slovakia’s foreign policy and that the publication will find its readers.
More...
The year 2005 was unique for Slovakia’s foreign policy. It was the first year of a fullfledged membership in the Euro-Atlantic structures. While 2004 was a year of identification of the post-integration foreign policy priorities, the year 2005 can be characterized as the first year of their implementation. The ambition of the Yearbook is – at the appropriate level and with the possibility of identifying perspective trends – to look for the answers to new coherences that, in a broader European context, are most topical for Slovakia. Twelve authors attempted to find the answer to questions how Slovakia implemented its new priorities in the new environment. This edition of the Yearbook focused on five foreign policy issues characterizing the foreign policy development in 2005, such as the EU and NATO membership, Slovakia’s activities within international organizations and concrete implementation of the foreign policy priorities. The first chapter focuses on Slovakia’s membership in the EU. Aneta Világi, the analyst of the European Integration research program at RC SFPA, deals with the topic of discourse on the EU Constitutional Treaty. She concentrates especially on development of the EU Constitutional Treaty ratification process in Slovakia as well as the impact of the unsuccessful ratification in the Netherlands and France on its further development. In conclusion she suggests for the Slovak diplomacy to use the stagnation period to form its own priorities in case the discussion on further development after the unsuccessful ratification is open. Vladimír Bilčík, the Head of the European Integration research program at RC SFPA, examines the official standpoints of Slovakia towards the EU enlargement and focuses on the main points of discussion on further enlargement in 2005, including the issue of absorption capacity. The second chapter is devoted to the security policy. It is open by an article of the analyst of the Center for European and North-Atlantic Affairs Vladimír Tarasovič. He assesses the key events or changes from the point of view of the EU and NATO. Vladimír Tarasovič also analyzed the most significant security policy documents adopted by the Slovak Government in 2005. The reflection of the mentioned document in practice was analyzed by Miroslav Kysel, an analyst from the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. The analysis of Ivo Samson, Head of the International Security research program at RC SFPA, opens the third chapter of the Yearbook. In his analysis, he focuses on the candidacy and preparation of the Slovak Republic for the UN Security Council membership as well as on the fundamentals, principles, priorities and possible dilemmas of Slovakia’s activities in UN SC. Peter Lizák of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic takes a more detailed look at Slovakia’s current performance and the future prospects in OSCE. The issues in Central Europe are analyzed by Tomáš Strážay, Head of the Central and South-eastern Europe research program. He assesses the key points as well as the problematic issues playing a significant role within the Visegrad Four, the Central European Initiative and Regional Partnership. Tomáš Strážay also attempts to determine the fields of cooperation which the individual groupings could realize in the short as well as medium-term perspective. The fourth chapter assesses implementation of the main foreign policy priorities such as Ukraine and the Western Balkans. Alexander Duleba, director of the RC SFPA, focuses on the relations with Ukraine. He considers the years 2004 and 2005 a breakthrough in the approach towards the Ukraine considering the development of Slovak-Ukraine relations. Moreover, he stresses that only in 2005 did the outlines of Slovakia’s post-integration eastern policy meet the interests of Slovakia, which could significantly contribute to the common EU and NATO policies. The contribution of Eliška Sláviková of People in Peril reflects on the base forming the decision to include the Western Balkans into the foreign policy priorities of Slovakia. It also reflects the practical realization of the policy towards the Balkans. She assess Slovak bilateral relations with the individual countries of the Balkans as well as relations at the EU level and attempts to answer the question where Slovakia could see its working space in the Balkans. Slovakia’s Foreign Policy Tools is the name of the last thematic chapter in the Yearbook. Naturally, this chapter begins with the analysis of the Slovak development assistance as the main bilateral tool of Slovakia’s foreign policy. Peter Hulényi of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the SR takes a closer look at the Slovak ODA. He analyzes the 2005 success of the Slovak ODA in more detail and, rather than talking about the failures, he points out the challenges Slovak Aid will face in 2006. Foreign economic policy is reviewed by Tomáš Taraba of Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency. The public opinion on foreign policy issues is traditionally the field which Oľga Gyárfášová of Institute for Public Affairs covers in the Yearbook. Her research outlines that there was a significant positive change in the public opinion on Slovakia’s performance in the field of foreign policy. Besides these analyses, the Yearbook includes a chronology of the most important events in the Slovak foreign policy in 2005 and selects political documents and other information (e.g. the structure and representatives of the MFA SR, a list of diplomatic missions and representatives of SR abroad, the SR diplomatic bodies, army missions abroad etc.). I strongly believe that all those interested in the foreign policy of Slovakia and its development in 2005 will find this publication useful.
More...
The year 2005 was unique for Slovakia’s foreign policy. It was the first year of a full fledged membership in the Euro-Atlantic structures. While 2004 was a year of identification of the post-integration foreign policy priorities, the year 2005 can be characterized as the first year of their implementation. The ambition of the Yearbook is – at the appropriate level and with the possibility of identifying perspective trends – to look for the answers to new coherences that, in a broader European context, are most topical for Slovakia. Twelve authors attempted to find the answer to questions how Slovakia implemented its new priorities in the new environment. This edition of the Yearbook focused on five foreign policy issues characterizing the foreign policy development in 2005, such as the EU and NATO membership, Slovakia’s activities within international organizations and concrete implementation of the foreign policy priorities. The first chapter focuses on Slovakia’s membership in the EU. Aneta Világi, the analyst of the European Integration research program at RC SFPA, deals with the topic of discourse on the EU Constitutional Treaty. She concentrates especially on development of the EU Constitutional Treaty ratification process in Slovakia as well as the impact of the unsuccessful ratification in the Netherlands and France on its further development. In conclusion she suggests for the Slovak diplomacy to use the stagnation period to form its own priorities in case the discussion on further development after the unsuccessful ratification is open. Vladimír Bilčík, the Head of the European Integration research program at RC SFPA, examines the official standpoints of Slovakia towards the EU enlargement and focuses on the main points of discussion on further enlargement in 2005, including the issue of absorption capacity. The second chapter is devoted to the security policy. It is open by an article of the analyst of the Center for European and North-Atlantic Affairs Vladimír Tarasovič. He assesses the key events or changes from the point of view of the EU and NATO. Vladimír Tarasovič also analyzed the most significant security policy documents adopted by the Slovak Government in 2005. The reflection of the mentioned document in practice was analyzed by Miroslav Kysel, an analyst from the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. The analysis of Ivo Samson, Head of the International Security research program at RC SFPA, opens the third chapter of the Yearbook. In his analysis, he focuses on the candidacy and preparation of the Slovak Republic for the UN Security Council membership as well as on the fundamentals, principles, priorities and possible dilemmas of Slovakia’s activities in UN SC. Peter Lizák of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic takes a more detailed look at Slovakia’s current performance and the future prospects in OSCE. The issues in Central Europe are analyzed by Tomáš Strážay, Head of the Central and South-eastern Europe research program. He assesses the key points as well as the problematic issues playing a significant role within the Visegrad Four, the Central European Initiative and Regional Partnership. Tomáš Strážay also attempts to determine the fields of cooperation which the individual groupings could realize in the short as well as medium-term perspective. The fourth chapter assesses implementation of the main foreign policy priorities such as Ukraine and the Western Balkans. Alexander Duleba, director of the RC SFPA, focuses on the relations with Ukraine. He considers the years 2004 and 2005 a breakthrough in the approach towards the Ukraine considering the development of Slovak-Ukraine relations. Moreover, he stresses that only in 2005 did the outlines of Slovakia’s post-integration eastern policy meet the interests of Slovakia, which could significantly contribute to the common EU and NATO policies. The contribution of Eliška Sláviková of People in Peril reflects on the base forming the decision to include the Western Balkans into the foreign policy priorities of Slovakia. It also reflects the practical realization of the policy towards the Balkans. She assess Slovak bilateral relations with the individual countries of the Balkans as well as relations at the EU level and attempts to answer the question where Slovakia could see its working space in the Balkans. Slovakia’s Foreign Policy Tools is the name of the last thematic chapter in the Yearbook. Naturally, this chapter begins with the analysis of the Slovak development assistance as the main bilateral tool of Slovakia’s foreign policy. Peter Hulényi of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the SR takes a closer look at the Slovak ODA. He analyzes the 2005 success of the Slovak ODA in more detail and, rather than talking about the failures, he points out the challenges Slovak Aid will face in 2006. Foreign economic policy is reviewed by Tomáš Taraba of Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency. The public opinion on foreign policy issues is traditionally the field which Oľga Gyárfášová of Institute for Public Affairs covers in the Yearbook. Her research outlines that there was a significant positive change in the public opinion on Slovakia’s performance in the field of foreign policy. Besides these analyses, the Yearbook includes a chronology of the most important events in the Slovak foreign policy in 2005 and selects political documents and other information (e.g. the structure and representatives of the MFA SR, a list of diplomatic missions and representatives of SR abroad, the SR diplomatic bodies, army missions abroad etc.). I strongly believe that all those interested in the foreign policy of Slovakia and its development in 2005 will find this publication useful.
More...
Presented the third volume of the Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 2001 offers the reader a presentation and summary of foreign policy of the Slovak Republic of 2001 from the point of view of its prime actors, expert and analytical view of the issue complemented by topical data of practical character as chronology of the most important foreign policy activities of the SR in 2001, structure of the State Administration bodies acting in a sphere of international relations and European integration, and others are. This structure of the publication known from previous volumes is based on needs to strengthen a tradition of regular assessment of the whole complex of Slovak foreign policy in all its levels with regard to a wide basis of its actors. It is confirmed also by an interest rendered to publication of the Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 1999 and the Slovak and English versions of the Yearbook of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 2000 as well as to holding two annual evaluation conferences where representatives of central bodies of the State Administration, political parties, scientific research and academic centres and non- governmental organisations took part. The Evaluation Conference of the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic for 2001 held under a title Slovakia and its Integrational Prospects was an important contribution to more effective use of intellectual and social potential of the Slovak Republic focused on the foreign policy and international relations field. Its specifics lay in the fact that it was hold in a year of parliamentary elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic. This reflected not only in its content but in participation in the Conference as well. In an attempt to give a wide space to a political discussion besides governmental representatives and representatives of relevant committees of the National Council of the SR delegates of opposition parliamentary subjects presented their view of Slovak foreign policy of the last year. Presence of research and academic circles and think tanks representatives and foreign policy students was not less important if we concern building of institutional background and human capacities and widening and strengthening foreign policy community in the SR. Interest and entry of young people, students into active participation in similar events is one of bases of a sound development of foreign policy community in Slovakia. The facts assure us about meaningfulness of our endeavour and the need to continue in organizing similar conferences and publishing Yearbooks of Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic. The Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung financially supported the Conference, as in previous years. We most of all thank to Frank Spengler, the director of its office for Slovakia and his deputy Agáta Pešková. It would not be able to hold the event without a restless and self-sacrificing work of the SIIS employees. Our thanks for assistance in organisation of the Conference belong also to L'udmila Lipková, the dean of the Faculty of International Relations of the University of Economy and to students of the Faculty. Publishing of the Yearbook of the Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 2001 was financial supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. It would not be possible to publish the Yearbook without mature work of Katarína Žáková, David Oršula and Marek Kalma. Special thanks belong to consultant of this publication Štefan Šebesta.
More...
Pitanje iz naslova bi se u svakoj evropskoj državi shvatilo kao lakrdijaška pravna dosjetka. U Bosni ono ne stvara reflekse osmijeha; pitanje je ozbiljno i prate ga dramatična upozorenja. Tema je unekoliko izlizana političkim parolama i medijskim eskponiranjem političkih pozicija. No, stručni krugovi (sudije, tužioci, advokati i državni službenici) i akademska zajednica (saradnici univerzitetskih insitucija i naučno-istraživačkih instituta) imaju jasno artikulirine stavove o ovom pitanju. Oni nisu apodiktičke prirode, nego počivaju na analizi pravnog ustrojstva BiH i iznalaze argumente u uporednom pravu, jursidikciji Ustavnog suda BiH i u pozitivnom ustavnom pravu.
More...
During and after World War II, Slovakia underwent massive political, economic, social and state constitutional changes. Being the part of the international events of the “hot” and Cold War, it had been brand marked by the two nondemocratic, totalitarian regimes – fascist and communist. After the Slovak Republic, which was in 1939 – 1945 a satellite state of the Nazi Germany, Slovakia became a part of the reconstructed Czechoslovak Republic with its specific system of “the limited democracy”. The communist coup d’état in February 1948 had brought the country under the rule of another totalitarian regime, spreading from Moscow to all states of the Soviet block. Though, the Czechoslovak society in 1968 tried to reform the communist system, it was unsuccessful in the same way as some other Soviet block countries, which also attempted to disengage the chains of the Soviet imposed regime. This period of the modern Slovak history has been – mainly after 1989 – a subject of numerous studies. Nevertheless, it is still researched only partially, some problems more other less. At the most is missing the synthesis of the contemporary history of Slovakia. The Institute of History of SAS is trying to fill this gape with a project Slovakia in the 20th century granted by the state Agency for Support of Science and Research. The part of this project will be the collective monograph (as the volume V) dealing with the history of Slovakia in 1945 – 1968, and its authors plan for the future also the next, sixth, volume of this synthesis. The book Chapters from the Slovak Contemporary History, which now the reader has in his hands, is also aimed at the presentation of some key or important problems of the Slovak war and postwar history. But it is not the only goal. The publication is also a tribute to the 70. life jubilee of an outstanding Slovak historian Michal Barnovský. His forty-five years of scientific career in the Institute of History have enriched the Slovak historiography in the field of the contemporary Slovak history. In which researched themes and to what extend, the reader may find in the introductory article and in the selected bibliography of Dr. Barnovský. The book begins with chapters showing the multiplicity of the history of the Slovakia and the Slovak question during World War II. The first one (author Jozef Bystrický) describes the role, which the Slovak army played in the plans of the Czechoslovak Ministry of National Defense (MND) in London in 1943 – 1944. Various documents, especially the Directives from 1943, enclosed the views of the London exile, how to engage the army of the Slovak state in the rising against its regime and in military resistance against the Nazi Germany. Though, the Military Headquarters in Slovakia preparing and then in August 1944 realizing the uprising had had to take in account the specific situation on the Slovak territory at the given moment, the MND instructions and directives influenced highly positive the contents, character and the quality of the military-technical arrangements for the rising. The second chapter of this Slovak state points at issue deals with the specific phenomenon of the regime propaganda. In this connection the author Marína Zavacká analyses a Slovak state journal Vĺča (The Young Wolf) for boys of age between 6 and 10, members of Wolf corps of the Hlinka’s Youth organization. It served as a regime-sponsored source of officially approved children’s role-models, including patterns of deeds to be followed. The study summarizes different propagandist vehicles used for making up heroic stories, ranging from social sacrifice to the sacrifice of life. Following four chapters concentrate on several important problems during the period of “the limited democracy”. One of the crucial questions of those times was the position of the Slovakia in the newly reconstructed republic and the search for the model of the future co-existence of the Czechs and Slovaks. Marek Syrný in his text examines this complicated problem from the point of view Democratic Party (DP), which arouse from the Slovak National Uprising as the strongest noncommunist political subject in Slovakia. The idea of its leaders was the Czechoslovakia as de facto federal state. The decline of this DP plans was pronounced in the course of discussions to the three Prague agreements, which had been till February 1948 more and more influenced by the struggle for power between democrats and communists. The next chapter by Slavomír Michálek shows one of the key problems of this period in the sphere of the foreign policy: the aims and the activities of the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference 1946, which were concentrated on the preparation of the treaty with Hungary. Beside the participation of the two leading figures of the delegation – Jan Masaryk and Vladimír Clementis – the author follows especially Juraj Slávik. Slovak born Slávik, who during his professional life belonged to the influential personalities of the Czechoslovak policy and diplomacy, participated at the finalizing the peace treaty texts regarding Hungary. Although the Slovaks felt the Hungarian problem as the most important for them, there had been another national community in Slovakia which postwar destiny radically changed. The German minority had been evacuated by German authorities, before the Red Army had crossed the Slovak borders (the chapter written by Milan Olejník). After the war had ended many of the Germans returned home, but there they fell under the decrees of President Beneš. Due to them they lost the Czechoslovak citizenship, underwent political, economic and social discrimination and 32-tousand of them were expelled. In 1948 to the rest of them the citizenship was returned, but the minority rights they have been lacking until 1989. The last chapter covering the period 1945 – 1948 belongs to the commentated document in which the French Consul General in Bratislava E. M. Manac’h informs his government about the key political phenomena in Slovakia during the Czechoslovak crisis in February 1948. The commentator of the material – published in Slovak translation and in French original – Pavol Petruf stresses, that E. M. Manac’h stated that the events between 21 and 27 February 1948 had shown the communists, in comparison to their democratic opponents, as better prepared for solving the batte for power. Couple of problems connected with the the communist coup d’état in February 1948 are the subject of another chapters. Miroslav Londák in his text analyses the changes of the economy system in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, which had taken place in the first, “founding” period of the new regime. They resulted into the socalled socialist economy, based almost entirely upon the state ownership and directed by the centrally composed five years plans. The author also points out the specifics of the development in Slovakia and the determinants of its socialist industrialization. Another sector of economy – the agrarian one, is the topic of the chapter written by Viera Hlavová. The strategy of the communists immediately after the war was to get peasants on their side and therefore they had rejected the cooperatives of the Soviet type. But after the February 1948 the primary task became to re-orient the small agrarian production to the large-scale socialist one, to form state agricultural enterprises and, in the same time, to fight the “capitalist elements” in the country. The village had been transformed according to the Soviet mode, without respecting the specifics of the Czechoslovak and Slovak agriculture. The same regime changes as upon the Slovaks, dropped down upon the members of the Hungarian minority. In addition to it – as Soňa Gabzdilová-Olejníková states – immediately after the coup d’état the exchange of the inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary continued, the plans were made for the second stage of re-Slovakization and there was no hope for in the Czech lands deported Hungarians to return back to Slovakia. In this respect the situation changed with incorporation of the principles of so-called proletarian internationalism into the mutual relations between the communist parties of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The communist coup d’état influenced also the Slovak postwar emigration, which had been concentrated at the free and independent Slovakia. As Karel Kaplan in his chapter analyses, this Slovak exile was for a long time devided, but after the February 1948 Karol Sidor – one of the leading figures of the Slovak autonomist émigrés – successfully formed the Slovak National Council Abroad, the umbrella organization of the Slovak political exile. The direct influence of the exile states in his text also Vladimír Varinský, who surveys the formation of The White Legion organizations in Slovakia. Although it was possible, that some of these organizations provoked the State Security, the newest research shows that the main cause of their secret existence and activities was a spontaneous resistance of the people against the practices of a new regime. And the reaction of the communist establishment was persecutions. The most brutal form of them had been the framed political trials and the two of them from the beginning of the 50ties depicts in his chapter Jozef Leikert. Based upon the archival research, but mostly upon oral testimony he analyses them from the point of view of their insider, journalist and writer Ladislav Mňačko. He witnessed these trials as the daily news Pravda journalist and influenced the public in accordance with the regime propaganda. But later on he came round to realize its fabricated character and confessed his part of guilt. In the shadow of the “founding” period of the communist system with its totalitarian practices and persecutions stays the sometimes natural development – though politically and ideologically distorted – of various phenomena in the Slovak society. One of them, the development of the Slovak science from its half-amateur stage to internationally accepted partner, shows in her chapter Elena Londáková. She concentrates on the Slovak Academy of Sciences, but deals also with the complex of the state and party policy towards the science and its various branches. On the outside and from the point of view of communist leaders the “founding” period represented a successful establishing of the communist system. But already in this time there were the signs of the crisis, which is immanent to this type of regime. Jiří Pernes in his text summarizes the various opinions regarding its beginnings. Unlike Karel Kaplan, who talks about the crisis in 1953 – 1957, Pernes inclines to take in account deeper tokens of it, which perhaps started the crisis development already in the early 50ties. With the chapter of Václav Vondrášek the themes of the publication move chronologically to the history of the 60ties. He surveys the activities of the Hlinka’s Peoples Party exile at the turn of 50ties and 60ties and the countermeasures of the communist establishment in Slovakia. The efforts to unify this exile abroad, watched the communist regime in Czechoslovakia with suspicion. As the reaction, the State Security activities towards the potential followers of this exile branch started to intensify. So much more that in connection with the further restriction of power of the Slovak national institutions and worsening of the economic situation the discontent in Slovakia had grown. This special Slovak national discontent created also one of the differences in perception of the “Prague Spring” in the Czech and Slovak societies. As the author of this chapter, Stanislav Sikora states, during the attempt to reform the Soviet type of socialism in 1968, both state building nations in Czechoslovakia had their own conceptions of the democratization process. While in the Czech lands the priority was the general democratization of the political system, Slovaks felt it as the opportunity for the further national emancipation. But the newest studies also show that also the Slovak society was more diversified than this traditional characteristic says. The next chapter of the book treats the staffing transgression of the communist regime into the activities of the Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession in 1948 – 1989. Jan Pešek in his text analyses the communist regime attempts to rule over all spheres of the society, including the churches. In the case of Slovak Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession the establishment used the traditional election of all church and laic authorities for its own purposes. With various practices influenced the elections to the benefit of persons, willing to cooperate with the regime. In this way the ability of the Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession to resist the pressure of the communist system had been markedly weakened. Also the following chapter treats a specific issue. Jan Rychlík surveys the travel relations between Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1980 – 1989. The point is that in connection with the strikes in Poland and forming the independent trade union Solidarity, the Czechoslovak authorities started to be afraid of the free travel possibilities between two countries. There were two causes for this fear: political and economic. The author very precisely documents the official measures and economic circumstances, which for more than a decade regulated the travel transfer between the Czechoslovakia and Poland. The last chapter of the book by Juraj Marušiak bridges the history and contemporary development. It is an analysis of the perception of the past by the Slovak society and of its influence on the development after the November 1989. The author concentrates on the perception of the two totalitarian regimes – that of the war Slovak state and of the communist period. He comes to conclusion that in the Slovakia the roots of democratic tradition are not strong enough, which should be the result of the political system before 1918. Both totalitarian regimes of the 20th century used these behavior patterns of the population and on the other hand a great part of the people identified themselves with these regimes.
More...
The author of the book pays attention to four major problem areas in the modern history of the Slovak nation, the society and the country. The research is focused on the Slovak history in the first half of the 20th century and, particularly, the period of the Czechoslovak Republic between the two World Wars. In chapters of Part 1 entitled Slovak Society within Changes of Historical Time the author tried to classify relatively short period of interwar Slovak history in wider historical interrelations. In the first chapter he examines the problem of periodization of the Slovak history within the context of history of the other Central European nations, and points at the open methodological questions of the Slovak history research ensuing from insufficient investigation of the changing collective identity of the Slovaks. The next two chapters of Part 1 are devoted to historical heritage of the Slovaks and its peripetia related to generation of Ľudovít Štúr, as the first politically oriented and functioning generation in the modern history of the Slovaks, and following generations up to the origin of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The topic of the following chapter is the examination of historical traditions and stereotypes of the last two centuries which support, eventually weaken the renewed democratic political system in Slovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989 and the origin of the independent Slovak Republic in 1993. Next two chapters research a historical memory of the Slovak society relating to the autoritarian Slovak Republic between 1939 and 1945 and to the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, being the symbol of anti-fascist struggle and democratic future of Slovakia. The last chapter of Part 1 deals with the simplifying contradiction between the civil and national principle in the history and the present time, as manifested in expert discourse as well as in journalism upon renewal of the democratic regime after 1989. In Part 2 entitled Politics and Its Faces on Interwar Party Arena the author is concentrated on domestic policy in interwar Czechoslovak Republic. The first chapter deals with violation of some democratic rules in the first decade of existence of the new Czechoslovak State. The further two chapters are concerned with the question of relations between the Agrarian Party, as the largest government party and Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party in the time of functioning in the joint government coalition in the second half of twenties of the former century and the conflict relations between two head personalities of the Slovak agrarians Milan Hodža and Vavro Šrobár. The subject of the author’s study is also the trend of authorities to keep the cult of the first president of the Republic T. G. Masaryk already during his lifetime in dimensions unusual for the European democratic countries. The last but one chapter of this part of the book examines the fragility and weakness of the Slovak democracy which had fully manifested itself in autumn months of 1938 after adoption of Munich Agreement by the Czechoslovak government. The People’s Party had managed then, also due to inability of the weakened democratic parties to remove in a short time the parliamentary democracy and to set down an authoritative rightist regime in Slovakia. The loyal service of the Slovak intellectual Vladimír Clementis to the Communist movement and regime, for which he was “rewarded” by death penalty and execution in 1952, is depicted in the last chapter of this part of the book. Part 3 of the book entitled Political Echoes of Ethnic Colourfulness of the Republic in Interwar Period is devoted in its five chapters to one of the most remarkable features of interwar Czechoslovakia and its consequences – to question of more or less conflict coexistence of nations and ethnic groups living in this Republic. The examination of regional aspects of the ethnic problem in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, is treated in the first two chapters of this part of the book. The next two chapters are concerned with policies of the national minority parties in the Czechoslovak Republic and participation of the German minority parties in the government coalitions of the interwar period. Based on the research the author comes to the conclusion that the proportional electoral system of interwar Czechoslovak Republic enabled in principle equitable representation of national minorities in the Parliament, and some German minority parties took an active part in the government policy since mid-20’s up to spring 1938, when the political game was energetically encroached by a strong external factor – Nazi Germany. The last chapter is devoted to interwar sources and inspirations for, in final consequences, unsuccessful attempt of radical “solution” of Hungarian question in Czechoslovakia after World War II. The final part of the book entitled Slovakia in the Modern Central European History includes the chapters with a various themes concerning the position of Czechoslovakia and, in its context, of Slovakia in the Central European area: a sharp critique of Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty of 1935 from the point of view of radical rightist and nationalist newspaper Nástup, differences in views on postwar future of Central Europe by two prominent exile politicians – the former president Edvard Beneš and the former prime minister Milan Hodža during World War II, complex interwar and war geopolitical challenges for Czechoslovakia faced with by E. Beneš, as well as the CzechoslovakHungarian and Slovak-Hungarian disputes about the southern border of Slovakia since the Trianon Peace Treaty of 1920 up to the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947. The influence of the modern Central Europe history on international position of the Slovak Republic after attaining of its independence in 1993 is outlined in the final chapter of this part of the book. To the book is added, as a historical document, a politological reflection of the spring 1968 entitled Socialism and National Democracy drafted as a contribution to a discussion on the future of the Slovak society in the period of the so-called Prague Spring, that is, before occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies.
More...
The formation of the Czechoslovak Republic was confirmed officially on October 28 and 30, 1918 by passing two constitutional acts – the Proclamation of the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague and the Declaration of the Slovak Nation in Turčiansky Svätý Martin. The implementation of Czechoslovak independent statehood, however, required another two years of consolidation in the territory of Slovakia, a period which ended by signing the Treaty of Trianon in June 1920. The period between these two milestones – October 1918 and June 1920 – was exceptionally demanding for Slovakia and its leading politicians. The author presents in her work “Slovakia on its Path to Democracy“ the complex problems that emerged immediately after the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic and that were closely connected with the process of integration of Slovakia into the new state. The crucial problem was especially the great gap caused by different levels of development of Slovakia and the Czech lands. It was exactly this feature that gave rise to new problems in the process of integration of the two territories. The Office of the Minister Plenipotentiary for the Administration of Slovakia was temporarily in charge of the consolidation of the new political situation. The Minister’s task was made more difficult by the efforts of Hungary to regain the territory of Slovakia or at least a part of it. This “war after the war” complicated the proper functioning of the administration and of the democratisation process in Slovakia, which was lawfully initiated and codified by the Revolutionary National Assembly. Many of its provisions could be implemented in the Czech lands only, as Slovakia had to be put under martial law in March 1919 because of new war events, with a military dictatorship being introduced in June 1919. Supplying the citizens with basic needs became more difficult, which led to an increase of post-war social tensions, disgruntled minorities, and even more complicating consequences on the domestic political scene. The author, besides describing the first steps that were made after the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic and the ideological and programmatic trends of Slovak policy, analyses some key issues that the Ministry Plenipotentiary had to face. These were closely linked to the changes in administration, staffing and funding, and the overall authoritative character of the post-war regime in Slovakia. Along with the national, economic, and social difficulties, they influenced the outcome of the general elections in 1920, which did not favour the Slovak middle-class parties, but made leftist parties victorious. In this context, the author focuses on certain prominent personalities of this era: especially Vavro Šrobár, Milan Hodža, and Juraj Slávik. They were representatives of the new Slovakia not only as government ministers, but also as leading politicians of the Agrarian Party, which played an important ideological, political, and economic role in Czechoslovakia from its beginning to its end. It is obvious that some problems that emerged immediately after the formation of Czechoslovakia (e.g. the struggle for Slovak autonomy and official recognition of Slovak national identity) and were not properly resolved, continued to reproduce themselves. They polarised the Slovak political scene to an unfortunately large degree, reappeared after twenty years in a more radical form, and proved fatal to the Republic as a whole and to Slovakia in 1938.
More...
Military operations during the Slovak National Uprising (SNU) and the front-line battles on the Slovak territory between the years 1944-1945 are relatively well researched by Czech and Slovak historiography. However, the impact of these events on the Slovak economy, infrastructure and the social sphere were only of marginal interest here. The same can be said about the subject of eliminating the war related damages after 1945. Three authors, Ľudovít Hallon, Miroslav Sabol and Anna Falisová (researchers of the Department of History of Sciences and Technology, Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences) decided to pay a closer attention to these less frequented themes in their monograph. It is at a same time a first attempt and a pilot project for a future research leading towards a more comprehensive analysis of the mentioned themes. The monograph consists of three autonomous parts; one from each author. In the first one, Ľ. Hallon documents how the outcomes of military operations influenced the Slovak economy, especially the industry, financial sphere and the infrastructure. The main focus is on the period from June 1944 (first bombing of the Slovak industrial facilities), till April 1945 (end of war on the Slovak territory). In some cases, this time interval is stretched till the first months after the WWII. The analysis is based on the archive research in Germany and Slovakia, especially on the documents about aerial attacks, war damages during the SNU and the front-line military operations. Special attention is dedicated to the far-reaching financial losses related to the German occupation and plundering after the outbreak of the SNU. Ľ. Hallon analyzed also the forms of German control of Slovak economy and overall status of war damages. In the second part, M. Sabol deals with the reconstruction of the damaged economy, infrastructure and partly also tertiary sphere in Slovakia between the years 1945- 1948. Author focuses on the importance, role and types of domestic and foreign aid presented to the Slovak inhabitants and economy. The already existing knowledge about this theme is here significantly enriched by the archive research, analyze of statistics and contemporary newspaper articles. This section is describing the elimination of war damages in agriculture, restoration of specific industrial branches, reconstruction of demolished infrastructure, especially the railways, but also roads, bridges and water transport. M. Sabol writes about transferring the industrial facilities from Czech lands to Slovakia. The subchapters about mine clearing and problem of German reparations for the Czechoslovakia are based on yet unknown sources. This is also the case of information about the status of Slovakia in the process of delivering the UNRRA aid as well as the description of the help coming from the Soviet Union. The third part, written by Anna Falisová, deals with impact of war on the health and social situation of the population. This chapter has a „pioneering character“ as it is based exclusively on archive documents and other primary sources. Regarding the health situation, this text is focused on spread of epidemics after the end of war and efforts to stop them. It analyzes the overall health status of the population and establishment of the new „miraculous“ medicine, penicillin. This part of the book deals also with the health situation of children, with the help of UNRRA and other foreign organizations for the health service. Special attention is devoted to health aspects of war repatriations, impact of war events on the psychic state of the population and the methods used to reduce these effects.
More...
This volume presents the first results of the project ‘Russia’s (Dis)Information Activities Against the Nordic-Bal tic Region’, which was initiated in 2016 as an ongoing project for monitoring and analysing Russia’s information influence in the Nordic-Baltic region (NB8), which includes Den - mark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden. In the period of 2016–2017 four pilot studies were conducted to answer questions about the aims of Russia’s information activities in the region; the use of the ‘compatriot’ policy as a tool of influence; the narratives Russia is using to advance its aims in the NB8 region; how the information provided by Russian state-funded media in some of the NB8 countries is used and how much it is trusted; and about public opinion regarding the narratives Russia promotes in some countries in the region. The main findings are structured around these research questions: What are the aims of Russia’s information activities in the NB8 region? • In the political dimension Russia aims to become one of the great powers in the new polycentric world order, to become an equal player in the international system, to challenge the unipolar world order, to counter the post-Cold War interventions of the West, to counter Western liberal democracy as a universal value, to call for the revival of Westphalian sovereignty, and to subvert the unity of the Western states. • In the military dimension Russia aims to counter NATO expansion towards Russia’s borders and to combine military force with other instruments of power. • In the economic dimension the Arctic as a region is a priority for Russia, as well as economic interdependence with the other countries in the region. • In the informational dimension Russia aims to develop its own global media system for the promotion of its worldview, to position itself as a distinct civilization, to support Russian ‘compatriots abroad’, and to develop the concept of the ‘Russian World’—an ideological space that exceeds the territorial boundaries of Russia, as well as to promote its own perspective on Russian and world history. • The main tools for advancing Russia’s aims are identified as: Russia’s domestic and international media system; the Internet and social media; government-organized nongovernmental organizations (GONGOs); Russia’s compatriot policy; pipeline diplomacy; economic interdependency; the encouragement of political radicalization and polarization of Western societies; intelligence operations; and demonstrations of military force. How is Russia’s compatriot policy being used as a tool of influence in the NB8 region? • The concept of Russia’s ‘compatriots abroad’ is rather ambiguous and widely interpretable, which gives Russia an opportunity to use the idea of protecting compatriots’ rights as a moral justification for interfering in the internal matters of the sovereign states, for using military force, and for violating the territorial integrity of its neighbouring states. • However, the number of people who identify themselves as Russia’s compatriots may be at least three times smaller than officially estimated by Moscow. Due to the vagueness of the concept the actual number of compatriots is difficult to verify. • There is a gap between the scope of Russia’s compatriot policy as it is officially declared and organized and the strength of Russia’s actual relationship with its compatriots abroad. The organization of Russia’s compatriot activities abroad is rather formal, not well known among or representative of Russian speaking communities abroad, and characterized by internal conflicts. As a result, there is no genuine link between Russia and its compatriots abroad, despite an active state policy. • However, from the perspective of the national security of the NB8 countries, the main concern is not the actual interactions between Russia and its compatriots in the region, but the fact that the narrative of ‘discrimination’ may be used as a political excuse for intervention, as evidenced by the five-day war with Georgia and the crisis in Eastern Ukraine. It may be assumed that Russia exaggerates both the number of its compatriots and the effects of activities to ‘engage’ with them, so that Russia can intervene (if expedient) to ‘protect’ them in a military or non-military manner. • Latvia and Estonia are the countries most vulnerable to the application of the narrative regarding the violation of the rights of Russia’s compatriots, due to their large number of ethnic Russians and speakers of the Russian language as their first language, and to the phenomenon of ‘non-citizens’—people who immigrated to Latvia or Estonia during the Soviet occupation and could have applied for citizenship through naturalization once these countries regained their independence, but have chosen not to do so.1 If Russia chooses to use this narrative as a basis for violations of sovereignty it will be determined by its strategic interests rather than by any perceived discrimination against Russia’s compatriots, be - cause it is a tool and not a strategic goal. • The regional coordination of Russia’s compatriot policy began in 2015, when the Regional Coordination Council of the Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea countries was established. From the perspective of coordinating Russia’s compatriot policy, the Baltic States belong to Northern Europe instead of the ‘Near Abroad’. • The most intensely promoted of Russia’s compatriot activities in the NB8 region is the propagation of Russia’s historical narratives, which are mainly related to the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II. These activities take place in all NB8 countries. • Marginalizing Russia’s compatriot organizations and activists in the Baltic States reduces the possibility of Russia using them as a ‘soft power tool’. Russia’s opportunities for using soft power have been diminished by the Ukrainian crisis because of the increased wariness towards such activities. What narratives is Russia using to advance its goals in the NB8 region? • There were regional differences in terms of the application of certain narratives in relation to the NB8 countries by RT, Sputnik, and Perviy kanal in 2016. Regarding the Baltic States, Russian media have been most concerned with military issues—the two most used narratives were that NATO is a threat to Russia and that the idea of a Russian threat to the West is ridiculous. The analysed Russian media were more concerned with NATO and the activities of the alliance close to its borders, rather than specific is - sues within the Baltic States. • The most common narratives in relation to the Nordic countries were that refugees and migrants are a destabilising factor, and such related narratives as radi - cal Islam is a destabilising factor and far-right nationalism is on the rise, which provide evidence that Russia is attempting to amplify the destructive processes caused by the refugee crisis within Europe. • Another common narrative that emerged in the context of the Nordic countries was that the Arctic is a territory of dialogue, which is, that the interests of Russia and the Nordic countries overlap in this region and Russia’s intention is to solve these issues by peaceful negotiation, as stated in Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept. • Apart from these common regional trends, there were also some country-specific narratives. In the case of Latvia, the second most common narrative was discrimination against minorities. Estonia and Latvia have similar issues with their ethnic Russian population; nevertheless, in the case of Estonia the discrimination narrative was ob - served only three times, where - as there were more than 20 discrimination-related articles about Latvia. These data show that Latvia is the main target for the application of the discrimination against minorities narrative. • Norway and Iceland were used as role models in the context of the Brexit referendum, suggesting that these countries may do better without the EU and thus strengthening the narrative of diminishing unity in the EU. • The second most common narrative in relation to Finland was that Finland and Russia are good partners, no matter what. This is indicative of Russia’s attempt to build and strengthen bilateral relations with European countries. • Sweden stood out with the narrative Sweden is part of an unjust persecution of Julian Assange, showing how important the issues related to the WikiLeaks founder are for Russia. How useful and how trusted is the information provided by Russian state-funded media in the Baltic States, Finland, and Sweden? • In the states surveyed, the use of Russia’s global media outlets RT and Sputnik is limited. The general trend is that the majority of communities in the Baltic States are aware of these Russian media outlets, but do not use them (more than 60%), whereas most communities in Finland and Sweden are not aware of these media at all (more than 50%). • Of the Russian media included in the survey, Perviy kanal is the most influential in terms of the audience numbers reached, albeit there are regional differences. An average of 38% of respondents in the Baltic States reported watching Perviy kanal, whereas the majority of respondents in Finland (83%) and Sweden (67%) were not aware of the media outlet. • The demographic profile of the Russian media users surveyed gives evidence that the use of RT and Perviy kanal (the use of Sputnik is so small that it is impossible to make any analysis of the demographic profile of its users within this survey) is linked to the use of the Russian language, thus making these Russian media outlets an integral part of the so called ‘Russian World’. • The results of the survey also give evidence that Russia is not a trusted source of information in the Baltic States, Finland, and Sweden, except among a part of Russian speaking audiences in the Baltic States. What is the public opinion about the narratives promoted by Russia in the Baltic States, Finland, and Sweden? • The main finding in relation to public opinion is that if the views of the respondents overlap with the narratives promoted by the Kremlin, this overlap is not correlated with the use RT, Sputnik, and Perviy kanal. It is necessary to understand that due to methodological constraints and the existence of other determinants for public opinion that were not researched in this study, the over - lap between reported opinions and the Kremlin’s narratives may not be interpreted as the result of Russia’s influence. • The narrative refugees and immigrants are a destabilising factor for Europe gained the most support in Estonia (77% fully agree & agree somewhat) and Latvia (72% fully agree & agree somewhat). In Lithuania and Finland support for the statement was somewhat smaller, albeit still high—69% and 63% of those who agree fully and somewhat, but in Sweden this statement gained the least sup - port—only 46% of respondents agreed fully and somewhat. • The highest support for the narrative that a rebirth of neo-Nazism is taking place in Europe was identified in Sweden (74% fully agree & agree somewhat) and Finland (65% fully agree & agree somewhat)—the countries where consumption of RT, Sputnik, and Perviy kanal was the smallest. • The answers given by respon - dents about the narrative Russian speaking people in Latvia experience discrimination indicate that there is little interest regarding this issue in the neighbouring countries—29% of respondents in Lithuania, 30% in Finland, 41% in Estonia, and 60% in Sweden answered that they have no opinion about it. Respondents in Latvia have a strong resistance to this narrative—54% fully disagreed with the statement and 20% disagreed somewhat (74% of all respondents disagreed). • The response to the question regarding the narrative that Sweden is part of the unjust persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggests that some of the narratives Russia is promoting are not at all important for the people of the surveyed countries, as 70% of respondents in Latvia, 69% in Lithuania, 63% in Estonia, 41% in Sweden, and 22% in Fin - land have no opinion about this issue. • NATO is one topic that polarizes opinion in the Baltic States between those who use Russian as their first language and the titular nationalities. The general trend is that titular nationalities are more supportive of a NATO presence in their countries. Therefore the most surprising results in relation to the narrative NATO is a threat to Russia are found in Lat - via, because 45% of respondents fully disagree and 23% disagree somewhat (in total—68%) with the statement, despite the demographics and the high consumption of Russian media in the country.
More...
The 2003-2014 UN-mandated, NATO-led ISAF mission, which featured ground combat for the first time in the Alliance’s history, took a tremendous human and financial toll. By ISAF mission end, well over 1 million NATO troops and civilians had served in theatre along with hundreds of thousands of contractors. Reliable studies conservatively estimate the financial cost to be at least $1 trillion US dollars. Almost 3,500 troops under NATO command from 29 nations paid the ultimate price, and tens of thousands more suffered serious injury. Afghanistan has been a security-related point of discussion and a major part of Western military efforts for almost a fifth of NATO’s existence. By virtually any metric it is the longest, most complex, expensive, challenging and fractious operation in NATO’s history. As a result of the massive NATO and international effort – by any socioeconomic or human development index measure – Afghanistan in 2015 is a considerably better place as a result. That is hardly to say outcomes were optimal, or that NATO helped Afghan government forces decisively defeat the insurgency: they were not, and they did not. A commonly held view is that NATO also ‘lost’ the Afghanistan strategic communication campaign. This report is an effort to deduce what is NATO and ISAF’s score on that point, and if it did not ‘win’ outright then how did Strategic Communications (StratCom) perform? Within the political-military leadership and even within the communications community there are factions of passionate supporters for StratCom and just as many opponents. All seem to agree conceptually of the need for better coordination as long as they are the ‘coordinators’ and not the ‘coordinated’. Throughout ISAF’s duration these factions were often at odds and even as they clashed, the operating and information environment transformed. This should have led to a wholesale re-evaluation of optimal structure, process and capabilities: it did not. Still, as to be expected from the accumulated experience of continuous operations over 11-plus years of the NATO-led ISAF mission, some new capabilities were added that improved how NATO communicated with national domestic audiences including the Media Operations Centre and NATO TV. But the nub of the issues and the old debates – influence versus inform, the public affairs reporting relationship to the commander, measuring effect, how to better synchronise effort – are the same discussions as 5, 10 and even 15 years ago. The current impetus for reform has little to do with lessons learned during ISAF. It does however, have much to do with the Russia/Ukraine crisis. Given the contemporary security environment, the extent to which unsatisfactory campaign outcomes should be attributed to the communication effort is not an inconsequential subject. Today’s information environment bears little resemblance to what it was at the start of the ISAF mission in 2001, in large measure a result of widespread access to reliable Internet, the ubiquity of smart phones, and the global scope and penetration of social media. In the past decade we have transitioned from grasping the implications of the ‘strategic corporal’ to dealing with the operational consequences of the ‘strategic tweet’. Adversaries also became very capable at using new communication tools to their advantage. While it may be unlikely that the Alliance will fight another mission quite like ISAF, many observations can be drawn from ISAF about whether NATO communication-related policy, doctrine, structures and capabilities are fit for purpose in future campaigns. This report offers 12 recommendations where effort and resources might be applied to achieve more favourable outcomes. A North Atlantic Council-approved policy in August 2009 defines NATO StratCom as “the coordinated and appropriate use of NATO communications activities and capabilities ... in support of Alliance policies, operations and activities, and in order to advance NATO’s aims.” Still, the actions and practice during ISAF demonstrate that NATO aspires to achieve more for its strategic communications investment, and that it is increasingly about understanding the desired effect or behavioural change required to shape what to do, say, show and signal to inform, persuade or influence audiences in support of specific objectives. NATO HQs had two strategic communications campaigns to fight during the ISAF operation, the first being for the support of domestic audiences of the 51 troop contributing nations and international audiences. Given the policy hand it was dealt, the manner in which the operation was executed for the better part of a decade, the high operational tempo at NATO and zero nominal growth (thus, downsizing) forced on it by nations, the Alliance communication effort did considerably better than it is given credit for, in particular at NATO HQ in Brussels and Allied Command Operations, and for stretches of time at ISAF. This is a finding that may strike many as counter-intuitive. The second campaign was the operational battle for the contested population and against malign actors including the Taliban. If success is measured against information policy aims: “...create desired effects on the will, understanding and capability of adversaries and potential adversaries” (Information Operations); “to influence perceptions, attitudes and behaviour, affecting the achievement of political and military objectives” (Psychological Operations); and “to inform, persuade, or influence audiences in support of NATO aims and objectives” (StratCom), then the outcomes are decidedly more mixed, if not a failure. A detailed assessment of capability and performance in this report supports the argument that ISAF was a case of a fundamentally flawed political/ command structure that was by its structural nature incapable of devising and directing a unified political-military campaign. The international community brought a sense of hubris to that shattered country which had virtually no licit economy or capacity for effective governance. It set unreasonable objectives, looked for short-term metrics of success, and wholly underresourced the mission for almost 10 years. The strategy often changed, or was confused, or was conflicted. It took few Afghan views into account. No answer could be found to effectively deal with the vexing question of Pakistan where insurgent forces found sanctuary. NATO then proceeded to break or subsume most of the principles of war, foremost being ‘selection and maintenance of the aim’, ‘unity of effort’ and ‘unity of command’. But how fair is that considering Afghanistan was a major international endeavour, that the NATO mission has lasted this long and will continue for the foreseeable future albeit in different form, that support in the country for international forces remains high, and that troop contributing nations have not endured major political recriminations from their populations? Taking a long view, the ISAF communications effort cannot have been a failure. The magnitude of collective effort by NATO nations over that period of time is a considerable expression of Alliance will and stamina. From the political-military centre of gravity perspective of “maintaining the solidarity, cohesion and credibility of the Alliance”, this alone points to a strategic success broadly speaking. This report finds that improved StratCom did not, and does not, temper the effects of bad policy and poor operational execution. In the end, strategic communications outcomes weren’t nearly what they could have been but were considerably better than critics suggest. Where policy and operations were well connected and showed results, StratCom amplified that effect. Where policy and operations were weak, negative outcomes could be mitigated but not overcome. Improving strategic communication effects needs to start with better policy, greater understanding of audiences including motivations, conducting operations following established and successful military principles, and skilled practitioners. In that respect, the weakest link in the Alliance communication effort at strategic, operational and tactical levels was the profound lack of trained, expeditionary communication- and information-related military capability in almost all NATO member nations (excepting the U.S., and perhaps Germany). For NATO to be more effective, nations need to professionalise their approach to communications by abandoning the model of employing ‘willing general service officers eager to learn on the job’ to one that is firmly based on ‘qualified, trained and experienced practitioners in all disciplines at each rank level’. ISAF served as a forcing function for incremental albeit important improvements to NATO communication-related policy, capability and capacity aggregated over more than a decade of continuous operations. However, the transformation of the information environment happened much faster than NATO HQs and member nations were able to evolve their communications-related mindset, structures, capabilities and outputs. The real catalyst for the current effort to make substantive reforms has been Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In this regard the Wales Summit Hybrid Warfare initiatives identified a series of actions that if implemented would be a major upgrade to the Alliance’s ability to compete in the new information environment.
More...
The aim of the project is to build awareness regarding this emerging threat, and to come to a common understanding about what drives the organizations that use extreme violence to defend their ideologies. Most importantly, our aim was to understand the roots of such violence—the seed of an idea flowers into an ideology, which leading proponents and followers further communicate to potential supporters. Although the existing literature extensively describes the problem, this report was greatly enriched by the seminars, working groups, and one-on-one academic discussions I had the privilege of participating in over the past year.
More...
This study describes the current information environment of Moldova. The main focus is on how societal vulnerabilities are exploited by political actors who are following policies promoted by the Kremlin. The mechanisms linking societal vulnerabilities and people’s behaviour are described here in order to better understand the Moldovan information environment, especially the Russian influence on Moldovan politics. Compared to a traditional target audience analysis, this study highlights the importance of the structure of media environment, which promotes hostile Kremlin narratives in Moldova (see picture page 5). This study assumes that societal problems are not discussed in a vacuum. Moldovans’ perception of what is going on around them and the actions they take in response are shaped by the structure of and key actors in the media environment. As a result, only some topics are selected for public consumption. The chapters that follow describe the vulnerabilities in today’s Moldovan society, the divisive narratives promoted by the Kremlin and its local affiliates, local media ownership and control, and the most influential opinion-leaders in Moldova. Conclusions and recommendations are given at the end of each section. People living in Moldova today worry about their children’s future, poverty, unemployment, prices, corruption, and the possibility of war. This report highlights the importance of corruption, weak state structures, the dysfunctional political system, and the regions of Transnistria and Gagauzia as the major vulnerabilities currently faced by Moldovan society. All of these issues are closely linked to both poverty and the lack of security many people feel in the unstable political environment. These vulnerabilities are effectively leveraged to foster mistrust and polarization. After analysing the situation, we cluster Kremlin promoted messages, speeches, videos, demonstrations, and other acts. We consider these clusters as four identifiable hostile narratives that serve to create divisions in an already fragmented society. We have named them ‘Russkii Mir and Soviet Nostalgia’, ‘Federalization Will Ensure Equality’, ‘The European Union is Bad, Russia’s Customs Union is What You Need’, and ‘Romania and NATO are a Threat to Peace’. Each of these narratives targets feelings and emotions—the sense of belonging, the sense of selfdetermination, a sense of economic security, and a sense of physical security. Each narrative touches upon particular Moldovan vulnerabilities, but the tactics behind them can be recognised in other, similar narratives promoted by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin in other countries along the Russian border. The ideas in these hostile narratives overlap, sharing many of the same features. For instance, ideological conservatism supports both cultural propagation and is opposed to economic ties with the European Union. These narratives can also be contradictory, such as the idea of Russkii Mir, which attempts to link the Moldovans more closely to their former Russian rulers, while federalization strategy claims to promote self-determination for the ethnic Moldovan majority. Therefore, hostile narratives are not meant as idealized truth that the audience should swallow whole. Instead, individuals pick and choose the story elements that make sense to them, like choosing dishes from a buffet. What is crucial is that people accept a portion of the misleading information, which itself is enough to deepen the wedges between the various factions of Moldovan society. Post-Soviet narratives are a mix of residual memories, political failures, and regional conflicts. Ideological narratives affect minds and public behaviour via emotions and iconic images. The ‘Russkii Mir and Soviet Nostalgia’ narrative inspires unity between Moldovans and Russia on an emotional, even spiritual, level. The idea of Russkii Mir,’ or ‘the Russian world’, is an ideology built on the assumption that those who speak Russian think and act like the subset of Russians currently in power. In Moldova, this manifests itself through emphasizing Russian Orthodox religion, remembering and cherishing the sacrifices made during the Great Patriotic War, and clearly distinguishing between Moldova and Romania. These are attempts to create positive feelings about influence from the East and sharing the conservative Russian mental space. The ‘Federalization Will Ensure Equality’ narrative comprises acts and messages that stress the equality of different ethnic groups living in Moldova. Here Russia wants to take on the role of an alternative to the Moldovan titular group. The portrayal of Russians as the most important linguistic minority can be challenged. Not only is the size of Ukrainian population bigger, but Russians are closely followed by other groups in number. Politically, federalization might create veto-rights for the administrative areas of Transnistria and Gagauzia, which themselves are closely linked with Russia due to various historical circumstances. The narrative ‘The European Union is Bad, Russia’s Customs Union is What You Need’ seems to be about economics, but actually the arguments used are often based on ideological conservatism and used to create fear among Moldovans. The related Kremlin narrative, ‘Romania and NATO are a Threat to Peace’, leverages people’s sense of insecurity. Echoing messages from the Kremlin, some political leaders are claiming that Western expansionism is underway, or that NATO and Romania have ambitions towards the East. The narrative has produced results: a large number of Moldovans favour both Vladimir Putin and political neutrality, which suggests that these audiences do not see the risks the current Russian regime poses to the region. These narratives are most powerfully communicated through various forms of media. Without a mechanism for the transmission of these narratives, they would have a limited audience and those sending messages would be unable to bring about changes in the behaviour of the people they seek to influence. For the most part, the Moldovan people are only exposed to that information, which local powerbrokers or the Kremlin-controlled media want them to be aware of. At the moment Moldova has too many media outlets for them all to remain economically viable in the small Moldovan economy. This reduces the quality of the news and creates an incentive for affluent actors to promote their own agendas. A handful of individuals in Moldova and the Kremlin are effectively dominating the news landscape. Much of the control lies in the hands of politicians or oligarchs such as Vladimir Plahotniuc, who has consolidated his business and political power structure, leveraging also his media assets. Plahotniuc plays a leading role in the pro-Western Democratic Party of Moldova, while his television channels run programming produced by Kremlin-controlled media. Some other influential politicians and businessmen active in the media include Chiril Luchinschi, Vlad Filat, Vadim Ciubara, Victor Țopa, Dan Lozovan, Dumitru Țîra, and Ilan Shor. This report includes charts showing who controls the Moldovan media (see picture page 48) and which parties are affiliated with pro-Kremlin and Pro-Western media outlets. (see picture page 47). The media is a pipeline that carries content. Journalists and researchers, who influence the national agenda, create the content. They are influential because audiences see and hear them actively analysing and discussing pressing issues. According to our study, some of the most influential opinion-makers were Corneliu Ciurea, Serghei Ostaf, Veaceslav Ionita, Victor Gurau, and Alexandru Cauia, who happen to be especially popular on platforms connected with Plahotniuc. Because the situation in Moldova shows every indication of remaining challenging, there will be a constant stream of opportunities to negatively affect the fragile development of proWestern narratives. Hostile narratives can be fine-tuned and kept alive with minimal effort. Adversarial forces needn’t actively worsen the current situation, as conditions are already bad. In the current political climate, Western values are under attack. In Moldova, neither the public sector, nor the public at large are clear about where they want to be heading. While the Kremlin is clearly leveraging the vulnerabilities of Moldova, the population itself is divided along several lines. Self-interest, greed, and lust for power are often veiled in political rhetoric, which makes evaluating the information environment challenging. Large segments of Moldovan society are inclined to agree with messaging originating from the Kremlin, while the pro-Western segments of the population are divided on a number of issues. The current Moldovan understanding of Western or European values is often distorted either by adversaries, or by noncredible proponents of alternative messages. There are many flag carriers for European values in Moldova, but many others exploit fears about Russia for their own benefit. In order for the voices representing truth and justice to be heard in the Moldovan information environment, the country and its people will continue to need support from free and open societies. Adversaries can affect decision making, first by distorting the quality of information, second by controlling access to information, and third by influencing people’s perception and understanding of the information they do come into contact with. There are several ways Moldova and its partners can help to protect Moldovan society along these lines. First, there are various ways to improve information quality in Moldova. Western values can be promoted using current media structures. The political agenda of each media outlet is partly moulded by a circumscribed number of opinion leaders, many of whom are discussed in this study. Offering good journalistic content to the existing popular channels is a way to improve understanding among audiences. Adding new channels is not effective in an already saturated market. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Moldova has managed to include both Romanian and Russian language programming on Moldova’s public TV and radio channels. Second, access to information might require marketing, more attractive programming as well as technical solutions. Large segments of the Moldovan population have limited access to high-quality information. They are barely in the Moldovan media space but voluntarily rely on Kremlin news sources. It is very difficult to reach these people if they are stuck in their media habits and not used to searching for news from different sources. To find a way to break through to individuals caught in this type of Kremlin information bubble, we should further analyse what kind of content, e.g. entertaining or journalistic, would encourage people to change their media habits. In Transnistria and Gagauzia there are even fewer opportunities to get Moldovan or Western content due to local broadcasting decisions, so reaching them requires other technical solutions. Third, protecting perceptions and understanding is the most difficult issue to solve. Proposals for various types of co-operation projects that would bring Moldova into closer contact with the rest of Europe and provide work in Transnistria and Gagauzia are especially relevant, as they are more isolated from the West. The situation in these regions is only one symptom of the problem. As long as there is no shared national vision about present realities and the future goals, all solutions remain partial. The Moldovan authorities and citizens must bear the brunt of the responsibility for creating new opportunities and developing cohesion among the inhabitants of the country. Western support for the Moldovan people, especially for education, rule of law, functioning state structures, and quality journalism will bear fruit in the long run. To summarize the policy recommendations, we are suggesting improving quality journalism leveraging the current media structures, targeting marketing and projects aimed at bursting proKremlin information bubbles, and continued co-operation in supporting the Moldovan response to improve state vulnerabilities.
More...
The study “StratCom laughs. In search of an analytical framework“ is a multidisciplinary effort to design an analytical framework for analysing humour in scenarios where researchers and practitioners find themselves working through large data collections where humour has been used as a potent tool in the construction of messages designed for strategic communication. The research was conducted in four stages. The first stage approaches the concept of humour from the perspectives of cognitive, communication, political science and psychology. The relevant components of humour, namely shared knowledge, target audience, perception, function and message delivery have been factored in.
More...
Two major geopolitical conflicts are at the core of this research. Military conflict in Syria and the related rise of terrorism carried out by Daesh, in both the region and beyond, pose an enormous policy challenge for the governments of the United States of America (US) and Europe. Simultaneously, Russia faces sanctions after it annexed Crimea – the biggest and most serious geopolitical violation of national borders in the 21st century so far. This paper provides an analysis of the dynamics and changes in the level of Russia’s information activities against Ukraine before and after the commencement of the Syrian campaign. The analysis proves that, despite the geographical distance between them, both conflicts share mutually coordinated strategic narratives promoted by Russia. This report argues that the strategic goals of the Russian government’s propaganda are the following: • to promote Russia as a crucial player in the polycentric world in the process of international peace; • to claim Russia’s superiority over the US; • to prevent Ukraine’s transformation into being part of the external border of NATO and the European Union (EU); • to soften and, in the nearest future, achieve the lifting of the sanctions regime against Russia.
More...
To be successful, an organization must have a carefully prepared strategy communicated through the proper channels, which leads to the implementation of actions that will result in the desired end state. The process used to achieve coherence between communication and information activities, closing the gap between words, visuals, and actions is known as strategic communication. In order to be effective, strategic communication must involve both charismatic leaders and active communicators. A well thought out recruitment campaign is essential to identifying and acquiring sufficient human resources. Recruitment is a function of human resource management and refers to the process of attracting, selecting, and appointing suitable candidates for specific positions within an organisation. Just as legally operating institutions choose the best people they can find to fulfil specific needs, organized crime and terrorist organizations must recruit people to carry out their plans. The main goal is to attract the attention of potential audiences and draw them into the organisation, either regionally or globally. Daesh has been working in its strategic communications to attract the attention of people who may be willing to support Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s ideology. Daesh youth recruitment has history of its own, which is as old as the organization itself. Their approach to recruitment plays a vital role in sustaining the number of foreign terrorist fighters and many other kinds of supporters who are an essential part of the overall strategy. If we only think of Daesh recruits as foreign fighters, we are not thinking broadly enough. Of course, any recruit could potentially become a foreign or domestic fighter. A ‘foreign fighter’ is a terrorist who comes from any country other than Syria and Iraq to support Daesh in battle. However, it is important to keep in mind that the recruitment campaign is not reserved only for those who choose to fight. The campaign targets many other audiences, including those who stay in their own countries and support Daesh by executing a great many tasks necessary for the operation of the organisation. Therefore, to understand the communication strategy of the terrorists, we must first understand how Daesh wants to be supported and what motivates possible Daesh recruits. This study focuses on the ‘Support Line of Effort’ mentioned in the previous report on Daesh published by the NATO StratCom CoE. The main objectives of this report are to show who is a potentially target for Daesh recruitment, what motivates people to support Daesh, and to identify the steps recruiters take to secure new members. The Centre has been analysing Daesh products on a monthly basis. These monthly assessments have been used to calculate what percentage of the overall communication strategy is dedicated to recruitment support. They also provide some indication of what steps are being taken and what techniques Daesh has been using to staff its terrorism and intimidation projects.
More...
The development of information technology has changed the nature of conflicts by creating an additional layer of complexity to traditional battle spaces. Nearly global access to the virtual environment has created numerous opportunities to conduct battles online affecting events in both the physical domain, such as computer systems, and in the cognitive domain of people’s attitudes and beliefs. Recently we have witnessed how both states and non-state actors use hybrid approaches to pursue their political and military aims, skilfully combining military operations with cyber-attacks, diplomatic and/or economic pressure, and information (propaganda) campaigns. Over the past decade, social media has rapidly grown into one of the main channels of communication used today. Virtual communication platforms have become an integral part of warfare strategy. The recent conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Ukraine have demonstrated that social media is widely used to coordinate actions, collect information, and, most importantly, to influence the beliefs and attitudes of target audiences, even mobilise them for action. Given this state of affairs, the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom COE) was tasked with looking into how state and non-state actors leverage social media as a tool for conflict and hybrid warfare strategies. The following topics will be addressed in the report: • What is the role of social media in hybrid warfare? How is it ‘weaponised’? • What techniques and tactics do state and non-state actors employ to support their political and military aims using social media? What effects can they achieve? • What can NATO and its member nations do to identify and counter the malicious use of social media? We hope that this paper will serve as a comprehensive introduction and useful educational material for anyone interested in understanding the complexity of today’s information environment, and specifically the techniques of influence used in the digital space. The report summarises the conclusions of research commissioned by the StratCom COE—Internet trolling as hybrid warfare tool: the case of Latvia by the Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA) in cooperation with Riga Stradiņš University, Social influence in Russia-Ukraine-conflictrelated communication in social media by a team of Polish researchers, Network of terror: how Daesh uses adaptive social networks to spread its message by Joseph Shaheen, US State Department Fellow at the StratCom COE, as well as discussions from the seminars and conferences conducted by the COE over the course of 2015. The StratCom COE would like to thank Thomas Elkjer Nissen, Head of the StratCom Section of the Royal Danish Defence College, Dr Rebecca Goolsby, Project Officer at the US Office of Naval Research, Col (rtd) Ian Tunnicliffe, Director of Accordance Associates, Prof Aki-Mauri Huhtinen, Professor of Military Leadership and Management at the Finnish National Defence University, Prof Ben O’Loughlin, Professor of International Relations at the Royal Holloway University of London, Nik Gowing, Visiting Professor in War Studies at Kings College London, Assoc prof Cristina Archetti, Lecturer at the University of Oslo, as well as Mark Laity, Chief of Strategic Communications at NATO SHAPE, for valuable contributions to the social media related discussions organised by the StratCom COE.
More...