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Commercial treaties between states played a crucial role in shaping overseas trade and the mercantile communities that lived among in the Baltic borderland. This article takes as its example the Anglo‑Russian treaty of commerce of 1766 between Britain and Russia to explore how Britain in particular negotiated commercial treaties. It shows the crucial role of commercial expertise, and particularly the British Russia Company, in shaping the treaty to best serve British interests. Britain’s reliance on commercial interests for expertise, meanwhile, was crucial to maintaining its supply of naval stores. The article then explores the impact of the treaty on mercantile networks in the Baltic, arguing that the fluidity of citizenship and national affiliation allowed the merchants of the former Hanseatic towns in particular to adapt and benefit from commercial treaties between states, a process that merits further research. The intersection of state and commercial interests was fundamental to commerce in the Baltic borderlands.
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The article is devoted to the little-known aspect of cooperation of the Polish and Ukrainian People Republics. In particular, it addresses the supplies to combat divisions of UPR Army in accordance with the military convention of April 24, 1920. The provision was enabled by the formation and activity of the special military Polish institutions in the Right Bank Ukraine. It deals with the command of the stages of the Polish Troops in Ukraine, Polish military representatives in the UPR government, section “U”, Ukrainian representatives of the 6th Army of the Polish Troops. Their task was to deliver the necessary supplies to the military divisions of the UPR. Special attention was paid to their work performance, which had a general positive effect on the military activity of the Ukrainian divisions in their counteracting the Red Army till the autumn 1920.
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The article examines the anti-Ukrainian narratives that russian propaganda produces and spreads to various target audiences, in particular, to the Ukrainian and russian populations and citizens of Western countries. It is shown that the goals of russian propaganda differ depending on the audience, in particular, for Ukraine's foreign partners, russian narratives justify the need to seize Crimea, the importance of russian patronage over Ukraine, and the legitimacy of the separation of part of the East. For the russian domestic consumer, the purpose of narratives is to shift attention from internal problems to external factors; to explain the need for russian support of the self-proclaimed "republics" as part of the "russian peace" and to show that putin's regime has no alternative. For the Ukrainian population, it is to show the inability of the authorities to solve the internal problems of the state, the fallacy of the chosen path of European integration, and the inability of the leadership of Ukraine to carry out reforms. The authors also showed how russian propaganda messages evolved in the russian information space, as well as how the information space of Ukraine changed after the start of the full-scale invasion. A conclusion is made about the informational resistance of Ukrainian society in relation to russian narratives after the start of a full-scale invasion.
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The Author is going to analyse the role of non-financial disclosures in the achieving goals established in the European Green Deal (EGD). There is the presentation of the aims presented in the EGD and created within the EU regulations in the area of sustainable finance. The Author also explained the definition of sustainable finance. In the last part of the Article the Author presented the current state and recommended change in the rules of non-financial reporting. Finally, the Article presented the connection between non-financial reports and sustainable finance and usability of CSRD in the architecture of sustainable finance.
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The article analyses the accounts most involved in initiating discussions about Russophobia in the Polish-language section of the Facebook social network in 2018 and in the period January-April 2022. The research process was carried out using quantitative trend analysis of the occurrence of a keyword related to discussion about Russophobia, network analysis and frame analysis. The author’s intention was an in-depth description of how this group of social media users reacted to the situational factor shaping the information environment, which was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The author sought to answer the question of how the observed phenomena affected the information security of the state. The study noted positive changes in the segment of the information environment concerning the discussion of Russophobia.
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The author analyzes the seizure of the SBU headquarters in Lugansk in 2014 by pro-Russian demonstrators. The author presents well-documented evidence that the Luhansk SBU was selected by the Russian secret services as a “trigger” of the uprising in the Donbas, due to the accumulation of a huge amount of ammunition, weapons and explosives, thanks to which the separatists could immediately start creating military structures after the attack. In the author’s opinion, the infiltration of the Ukrainian SBU and the Ministry of the Interior was facilitated by the existence of branched clientelist networks within them, enabling politicians hostile to the new prowestern government to steer state institutions in the name of the strategic interests of the Russian Federation.
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The state’s dependence on the supply of natural gas from external sources requires legislative measures to be taken to protect customers from the negative effects of political and economic events affecting the state’s internal security. In the natural gas sector, ensuring energy security and preventing emerging threats is particularly important. The purpose of this article is to present the legal solutions to protect certain groups of customers in the natural gas market and minimise the negative socio-economic effects in the event of an interruption to gas supply or a sudden increase in gas prices. The introduced legal regulations emphasise the unique specificity of the natural gas market, the essential feature of which is its relationship with imports.
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This paper explores the tourism-related official actions undertaken by the government in Romania during the COVID-19 pandemic from a stakeholders' perspective. The approach is based on answering three research questions: (1) Which are the policies that tourism stakeholders benefitted from during the pandemic? (2) How do tourism stakeholders appreciate the utility and efficiency of the measures implemented by the government? and (3) To what extent do the stakeholders perceive these measures as providing long-term benefits? Methodologically, the study relies on the statistical analysis of data collected through a questionnaire applied to tourism stakeholders from Romania. The results indicate mixed perceptions regarding the implemented policies, with most stakeholders considering the received support as less than optimal. A positive perspective is given by the fact that although most stakeholders regarded the positive impact of the policies only in relation to the pandemic period, there are also stakeholders indicating long-term benefits of these policies. These results are useful for providing lessons from the recent pandemic and for suggesting ways for improving governments' response to future crises.
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Polish maritime areas - both those forming part of the territory of the Republic of Poland and those located outside it - are covered by appropriate state jurisdiction ensuring that Polish interests in these waters are taken care of. The subject-matter diversity of legally protected values requires systemic action by competent entities. The security of Polish maritime areas in military (defence) as well as non-military (protection) terms at the national level is guaranteed by the naval forces of the Republic of Poland. The aim of this article is to present the role of the Maritime Border Guard Regional Unit (MOSG) - against the background of systemic solutions and existing threats - in counteracting non-military emergency situations in Polish maritime areas. As a result of the conducted research it should be assumed that the scope of statutory tasks and powers in combination with the personnel and equipment potential of the MOSG makes this unit of the Border Guard the main non-military component of the maritime forces of the Republic of Poland.
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This review article is devoted to a methodological notebook published by Ukrainian polygraphers. They presented ready-to-use solutions that can be applied when investigating sabotage and espionage suspects. Among other things, the reviewed publication discusses techniques for conducting polygraph examinations and provides examples of question sets used during testing.
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The aim of this article is to present the situation of women in the caliphate and in the structures of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ar. Ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fῑal-’Irāq wa aš-Šām) through the prism of Arabic-language media reports published on websites information services. In the article, the author presents the media image of women in ISIS showed by the Arabic and Western media. While some of them assign marginal roles to women as housewives, mothers and wives, and thus present their reality in this caliphate, there are also other media reports focusing on the active involvement of women in the organization’s activities. Most of the articles are from 2019. This is due to the fact that with the fall of the caliphate, many media began to make some kind of accounts and summaries of the activities of the terrorist organization ISIS.
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The author analyzes the seizure of the SBU headquarters in Lugansk in 2014 by pro-Russian demonstrators. The author presents well-documented evidence that the Luhansk SBU was selected by the Russian secret services as a “trigger” of the uprising in the Donbas, due to the accumulation of a huge amount of ammunition, weapons and explosives, thanks to which the separatists could immediately start creating military structures after the attack. In the author’s opinion, the infiltration of the Ukrainian SBU and the Ministry of the Interior was facilitated by the existence of branched clientelist networks within them, enabling politicians hostile to the new prowestern government to steer state institutions in the name of the strategic interests of the Russian Federation.
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In the history of Europe, there are only a few symbols that are common to all 27 EU countries: the Greek and Roman legacy, a common Christian religion, a shared bulk of common values and beliefs. The paper evaluates if Euro as a common currency should be considered as a symbol who may contribute to the European construction process and the role of symbols in the consolidation of a European collective identity. Our hypothesis is that the existence of a bulk of common symbols - among which the Euro currency is one of the most visible, shared widely by EU citizens - will consolidate the process of European construction. The lack of a common identity is often used by extremist parties as an argument in favor of Euro-pessimism and a return to nation state welfare. Our paper highlights the subtle links between money, collective identity and European integration. The results show a link between the rise of awareness concerning a European identity and the adoption of Euro. Fostering European symbols such as a single currency is contributing to create the conditions that allow the emergence of a sense of collective belonging, the European common identity.
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The issue of political participation of immigrants in Poland is becoming current and is worth reconsidering by the state authorities because of the growing number of immigrants settling in Poland. Due to the structure of immigration to Poland, characterized by the dominance of immigrants coming from outside the European Union, these issues are not subject to EU regulations that apply only to EU citizens. It is an open question whether the Polish authorities will take action to extend certain political rights to immigrants from third countries who have moved the center of their life activities to Poland. The article discusses the issue of political participation of immigrants in Poland on the example of their activity in local elections in 2014 and 2018. The research objective is to identify the key determinants of electoral participation of foreigners and to analyze the data of the National Electoral Commission, showing the actual degree of use by immigrants living in Poland of their electoral rights at the local level (the right to vote and the right to stand for election). The conducted analysis aims to reveal formal and practical possibilities as well as barriers and challenges, especially of a systemic nature, in the field of electoral participation of immigrants in Poland, both those who already have such rights and those who could obtain these rights.
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The aim of the article is to present a mechanism for the operation of organised crime groups which undertake to facilitate the crossing of a state border against the rules. The deliberations were based on an analysis made on the basis of a case study of a criminal case in which the perpetrators were convicted of organising the crossing of Poland’s eastern border by other people in contravention of regulations, undertaken as part of an organised criminal group. It was verified whether, according to reports from the Border Guard and the European Commission, we are dealing with the activity of international cross-border criminal group or only with network of local criminal groups operating on the territory of individual countries and cooperating with each other. On the basis of the research method adopted, the structure of the group, its mode of operation and the characteristics of foreigners were shown. Part of the deliberations was devoted to the criminal law reaction to the phenomenon mainly based on the level of penalties imposed by the justice system. The penalties imposed in the case in question were analysed and compared with the criminal policy of the Polish justice system within the scope of Article 264 § 3 and 258 of the Criminal Code. This was juxtaposed with the postulates resulting from the implementation of European Union law.
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Institutional intercultural openness is a crucial part of urban inclusion policy towards migrants. In cities with a long history of social and cultural diversity such as Berlin, London or Amsterdam, intercultural openness provides migrants with full or partial participation, initiating activities in the metropolitan space, access to public resources, and social security. In Warsaw, a relatively new inflow of economic migrants from Ukraine, who constitute a large and heterogeneous group, has necessitated changes in municipal cultural and integration policies to facilitate the needs of the new group of recipients. In our article, we focus on results from 91 interviews with Ukrainian students living in Warsaw conducted between 2019 and 2020. We analyse whether, how and why young immigrants from Ukraine use the offer of Warsaw’s cultural institutions; what their expectations are and how their cultural participation is connected with their acculturation and integration. Our research shows that despite the fact that Warsaw tends to build up its culturally open policy for diverse participants, it is not adjusted to the needs of young Ukrainians. As a result, this new diaspora begins to create its own conculture (not to be confused with counterculture). We understand this phenomenon as a set of cultural practices initiated by a minority group of migrants in their new place of residence, which result from the national cultural script of this group. Through these practices, this group cultivates the community, without any connection to the dominant (national) culture of the wider society they belong to or in the space of which its members live. On the one hand, the diversification of a municipal cultural offer allows migrants to find their preferred places and events within Polish culture, although on the other hand, it creates a space for the development of concultural practices that can lead to ghettoisation.
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The 2015 immigration crisis became a driving force for movements and parties that negate the current political order, including those that do not conceal their xenophobic slogans and ideas. In retrospect, there are more and more signs that the decision to accept the uncontrolled refugee influx was more an expression of wishful thinking than a rational decision, taking into account the actual political situation. Thus, Europe finds itself in a dangerous situation with far-right movements on the one hand, and radical Islam on the other. Each of these formations legitimizes its existence and methods of operation by the existence of the other side, trying to polarize society and create a situation that will somehow force citizens to opt for one of the two options. Paradoxically, Chancellor Merkel’s decision significantly increased the risk of such a scenario, hence the perception of Islamic and right-wing extremism by the German authorities as posing an equal threat to state security. However, it was only the recent terrorist attacks in October and November 2020 in France and Germany that changed the political narrative.
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The article presents the evolution of the Russian idea of military operations as a form of implementing security policy. Significant changes in the concept of conducting hybrid operations were pointed out in relation to the way they were carried out in the process of the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and during the Russian intervention in Syria. It was shown that the concept of the reconstruction of the armed forces since 2018 has been aimed at both preparing them for the implementation of the so-called integrated operations, expanding the external defence zone, and performing antiaccess operations. This is to be achieved by adequately saturating the armed forces with the necessary means to conduct such a task and by practically implementing the active defence strategy, which assumes that Russia will take pre-emptive actions based on precise planning algorithms. The Russian strategy of active defence is complemented by a strategy of limited operations. According to Russian experts, this strategy should involve external actions to protect and promote Russian interests abroad. The analyses demonstrate that the Russians have decided that the basic form of contemporary and future political-military conflict will be a non-linear conflict with a dynamic course. That is why a key role has been assigned to both kinetic and non-kinetic instrumentation capabilities and special operations with a comprehensive scope. To implement these plans, a thorough reform of the armed forces was carried out in terms of restructuring the organization, reforming the training system and modernizing the armaments. The main phase of the reforms had been successfully implemented by December 2020, despite the sanctions. The experience of Syria and the Donbass influenced the transformation of the Russian military doctrine. Its most important assumption was to move away from the primacy of synchronized non-military actions within a non-kinetic destabilizing operation. The concept of coordinated use of military and non-military means with a decisive role of the armed forces has become the basic form of conducting operations of this type.
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