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World War II marked the beginning of the forty-five years long period of tense peace, described as the Cold War. Two superpowers that emerged from World War II started to compete for hegemony over the world, representing two diametrically different political and economic systems. In any other historical period, such situation would lead to an inevitable great war, but after 1945 the competition was threatened by the possibility of using nuclear weapon whose capability of destruction was so enormous that neither of parties ventured direct confrontation. World War II contributed to scientific advancement that played a crucial role in the military progress of these states. The development of technologies assisting nuclear weapon resulted in a revolutionary change in military capability provided by the parties of the conflict. Rocket projectiles were the symbol of the 20th century, due to the fact that they carried humans into space, but also because they carried deadly weapon capable of killing hundreds thousands people. This combination of nuclear weapon with medium-range and intercontinental missiles caused that the world had to face permanent threat.
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For the purposes of this article it has been assumed that the army should not become an autonomous constituent of the state’s structure, since this would pose a threat of taking over a dominant position by this specific formation. The aim of the article is to analyze the modification of the reasons for the outbreak of war, and the means of conducting it. The ongoing changes in the security environment, both in national and worldwide scale, as well as the proceeding national interests of our country imply increasingly advanced tasks for the army and considerably extend their range. The process of transformation in the Polish army is being continued. Further changes are targeted at increasing operational capability in order to enable efficient accomplishment of domestic tasks and performing missions outside its borders. In the contemporary international reality there is a prevailing conviction, that the threat of the outbreak of a global-scale war is rather unlikely. However, other jeopardies and risks have recently come to the fore.
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This paper deals with the concept of political topology in the light of geopolitics and hybrid warfare. Traditional geopolitics can be regarded as a point of departure for the search for better tools for political decision making. Comparison and confrontation of different, theoretical and practical, concepts of hybrid warfare can be heuristically inspiring and lead to a compact system of politically relevant knowledge – to political topology.
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The Russian National Security Strategy of 2015 aims at achieving autarky from Western influences on global security, the rule of law and global trade. Russia aims at attaining this by applying a holistic mix of military, political and economic means to weaken the West and to strengthen its own role as a global player. The Russian approach builds on a strategy of reflexive control which as such is an old method, but the outcome of the application of this approach results in hybrid warfare which as such is a new emerging concept of warfighting. This short article looks at one particular aspect of this Russian strategy, namely using Hybrid, or non-linear, Warfare against its Western direct neighbours in particular and the West in general. We will discuss the underlying cultural logic in Russia’s actions and will reflect on the impact of Russia’s utilization of the existing cultural asymmetry as a form of warfare in regard to the West. The examples used in this text are taken from the context of the conflicts of Ukraine and Syria, but have to be seen as constituting a part of an on-going global conflict aimed at NATO and the EU. The text builds on years of research within the hybrid threat, warfare respectively, context by both authors.
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As men dressed in impeccable white tweeds and equally impeccable white silks, topi and Shalwar Kamiz , paraded in the government palaces in New Delhi in 1947, little did one realise that they were planning one of the biggest butcheries in human history. Historians on all sides consciously or unconsciously become part of the blaming game and very interestingly none of them speak of genocide. Most probably to maintain a false sense of respectability to their work or argument. The reality was that two nations were destroyed, Punjab and Bengal. Of the two, Punjab was structurally always kept separate from the 1840s onwards. What happened in 1946 and 1947 was that, the nation within a nation, the Sikh nation was temporarily neutralized at the cost of hundreds of thousands killed and millions scarred for life. The Punjab and Sikh conflict was bound to surface sooner or later because Sikhs, 5% of the population controlling a 95% Muslim population was bound to cause an upheaval, especially in a democratic structure. What was more, the Sikhs were ethnically different from the rest of the population. Here the problem was that a period of peaceful transition was denied, as millions were uprooted within a couple of months of notice. What was even more tragic and by all definition criminal was the systematic destruction of the Bengali nation. Although there were both Hindus and Muslins in this community, both in their big majority were ethnically Bengali. Religion was only a small fraction of their collective identity. Only a few decades earlier a plan by the Brits to divide this nation was crushed because all the Bengalis united behind the integrity of their nation. As historians, what is interesting for us to observe is that even after 1947 this policy continued under Pandit Nehru as Prime Minister. What had started as a plan in the 1840s was in large part completed in the 1940s and 1950s. Whether this was in the interest of the rest of India, it is difficult to say. But what historians can acknowledge is that part of Indian leaders, at the highest level, did participate in the systematic dismantling of the Bengali nation. They are therefore responsible for the bloodshed that resulted directly from their actions.
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The article examines the specificities of Soviet-German relations during the first year of the Nazi rule in Germany. The main foreign policy steps of both parties are outlined, as well as the role of their representatives. Operation “Nadolny” is named after Rudolf Nadolny, a German ambassador in Moscow (August 1933 – June 1934), a brilliant career diplomat, one of the last great diplomats in the Weimar Republic, a convinced supporter of the policy of close cooperation with the Soviet Union. The clash between the German government and Rudolf Nadolny is clearly evident on the issue of the continuation of Rapal’s policy. This is a clash between the German ambassador’s foresight and pragmatism and the aggressiveness of the new authorities in Berlin. On the other hand, the authorities in Moscow wanted evidence of their safety and continued good relations. Nadolny succeeded to bravely predict Germany’s return to the USSR, which happened in August 1939.
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Modern globalization based on the idea of one world is one of the most popular international concepts that aroused huge expectations and fueled tremendous energy. Aspiration for unified governance of the world is as old as the world itself and the continuity of global political tendencies can be traced back to the earliest beginnings of the social history of humanity. However, an idea aimed at geographical and political unification of the world was never before so powerful and seductive as is the case with contemporary globalization. Proponents of globalization have claimed that the triumph of the West in the Cold War competition confirmed the superiority of the liberal model and represented a break with the real politics perception of international politics. In this way, as argued, the conditions were created for the societies around the world to start their own reconstruction and define new directions of social development through the prism of neo-liberal school of economics. The process of global rapprochement, creating a global culture and universalization of democratic governance, permanently overcoming war and the establishment of lasting peace was announced. This mission of creating a global society in which economic forces define all other social contents is declared as the inevitability and necessity. The analysis indicates that it is now evident that the social and political reality has not developed as announced by the proponents of globalization at the beginning of the last decade of the twentieth century. Fascinating technological achievements cannot mitigate devastating failures and painful consequences of globalization that open spaces of long-term instability in the world and the social, economic and political wasteland of its development. It is increasingly evident that the outcome of global processes strongly denied the truth about the inevitability of economic theoretical concept whose ambition was to transform the political, economic and social fields of modern societies. The modern world fell into a time of confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, growing into a global risk society. The economic crisis and financial instability discredited the idea of the global market, and inequality and poverty desocialized the space that has reached planetary proportions. Strong reapprochement of nations, political communities and cultures and intensifying their interdependence encouraged more intense disagreement, the emergence of new national models, radicalizing definitions of identity to the most devastating forms. The return of the concept of the world in which the instruments of real politics become prevalent is more certain, which reverses the optimism about relations in international politics. Globalization has not transformed the world, and the concept of global governance of the world proved to be a failed attempt, manifesting a variety of system dysfunctions. Turbulent economic trends, geopolitical situation that is perhaps more dangerous than any other the world has had since the Second World War, chaos and extremism in the East, disoriented and weakened Europe and increasingly prominent hierarchization of the world into those who have and those who do not have represent dominant characteristics of the concept of global society. Instead of global rapprochement, which has been the supporting idea of global processes, the modern world is facing intense global process of divergence, and the multicultural concept of global community is threatened by intrusive ideological universalism, unjustified in terms of social, economic and cultural trends in the world. All this indicates that the modern world is going the opposite direction, giving priority to competition rather than cooperation, and that global order permanently institutionalizes inequality, making global peace and stability difficult to achieve. At the same time, globalization, especially its technological achievements, increased the number of problems that require global engagement and multiplied activities that require international regulation. Transnational endangering security, above all, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, organized crime, environmental degradation and population explosion, as well as the practice that transnational security associations and the armed forces of the most powerful countries in the world are often engaged contrary to the rules of international legal order defining the use of force in international relations, are just part of the phenomenon of contemporary reality seeking global approach. Hence, although demonstrated substantial shortcomings of global governance of the world discouraged belief in a unified humanity, it did not reduce the objective need for a global approach to many contents of modern human existence.
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The author discusses the role of Russian Orthodox Church authorities (Patriarch Kirill and Metropolit Illarion in particular) in the process of creation of ideological-religious basis for incorporation of Southern and Eastern Ukraine. While Vladimir Putin refers first of all to the Russian political tradition, religious authorities pay more attention to religious-national unity of Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), which began in 988 at the moment of the baptism of Rus.
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The article includes analysis of the consequences of the policies and practices, known as multiculturalism, focused on xenophobia and related phenomena. Autors stress the need of impartial scientific debate on multiculturalism, having in mind several theoretical contributions in the field. Situation is worsening because of powerful political and economic interests, influencing the onesided and/or selective application of scientific knowledge available. Special attention is devoted to several specific contradictions in the ongoing European discussion on multiculturalism policies.
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Political parties in India and Pakistan consider democracy a desirable regime for their countries. In order to introduce their own vision of a democratic state, they violate rules of free and fair elections, undermining the very procedures that constitute democracy. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League made different kinds of impacts on the democratisation processes in India and Pakistan respectively. In just a few years, the Indian National Congress, contrary to its counterpart in Pakistan, introduced a constitution and organised elections.
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This study aims to highlight the new provocations at the British diplomacy in the early months of the crisis related to the outbreak of the Great War. It also discusses the role of British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey and whether his actions appear correct or not, so structured political configuration.
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This paper is devoted to the problem of correlation of historical memory and the politics of history as an example of commemorative events dedicated to the events of Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of the Russian troops in 1813–1814. The author concludes that for over 200 years Russian authorities have actively used these anniversaries for implementation, especially narrowly defined national interests. Authorities were interested in preserving the historical memory of those elements of the past, only to use it for purely utilitarian purposes. “Living Memory”, more consistently reflected historical reality, subjected to serial “dismemberment” of its “unwanted elements” – “forgetting”, and the remaining segments of it – the procedure of processing and design of these “new past”. This destruction of genuine historical memory confronted critically oriented historiography, appeared together with elements of civil society, which aims to “return” the past, to see it in all its complexities and contradictions. Systematic attempts of authorities made over 200 years, to monopolize the memory of events 1812–1814 with a view to “reformat” and the actual destruction, failed. Under the influence of the challenges of time and critical trends in historiography authorities were forced to make concessions, not only in their assessment of the past, but sometimes to be engage in dialogue with those who are trying to keep the past alive.
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Georgia and Turkey has become important partners in the Caucasus region after independence of Georgia in 1991. Two countries preferred to follow pro-West policies in their foreign policy against Russian factor. They have geopolitical importance and geostrategic location for Russia throughout history. This article analyzes foreign policies of Georgia and Turkey and examines Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline as a common foreign policy between them. The paper found out that this kind of projects between Georgia and Turkey would make them important actors rising from regional level to global level in the future.
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Origins of theoretical elaboration of the nature of social conflicts derive from the Antic age and philosophical attitudes of Heraclites, Plato and Aristoteles. Further development of the thought on conflicts is connected with theological, natural-legal, geopolitical and Malthusian interpretations of social conflicts. However, only with development of sociology and psychology as separate branches of sciences there were developed significant scientific-methodological and theoretical directions and research schools on conflicts. Depending on different factors, in most general sense these approaches are divided into psychological and sociological ones. This division is made on the basis of consideration of the causes of conflicts – whether the causes are in the character of a human being or his/her social structures and institutions, or in other words, whether the conflicts are analyzed on the basis of the perspective of an individual or on the basis of their collective behavior (groups, institutions, communities, cultural systems and similar.) Social conflicts are “large and massive social actions or consciously directed, dynamic and practical mutual confrontations and battles of collective social subjects over significant and by their nature limited resources.” Essence of conflicts as “the states of social interactions and open antagonisms with confrontation and battle as basic directions” are internal-group and inter-group battles with the objective of accomplishment of mutually conflicting interests, values and limited but still important resources. This battle can be “the war without rules, to greater or lesser extent almost always limited by wide social, legal, moral, religious, technical or other norms and rules.” Rebellion can be defined as an organized armed-political battle of which objective may be taking over the governance by a violent upheaval and the change of existing government (governance), while in other case the objectives may be more limited. For example, the efforts of rebels to distance (separate) themselves from the control of the government and to establish an autonomous state within traditional ethic and religious borders. The rebellion’s objective can be taking over limited political concessions which cannot be achieved by implementation of less violent means. Terrorism is an organized implementation of violence or a threat by violence by politically motivated executors who are resolved to impose their will to the government bodies and citizens by causing fear, anxiety, defeatism and panics. Guerilla implies a higher level of violence in comparison with terrorism. Not every guerilla war aims at a social revolution. Guerilla’s objectives can be separation, the change of one political structure, counter-revolution, etc. Guerilla can be defined as a form of combat-organized political activity of small armed and very mobile illegal groups who aspire to represent the interest of the people and who, finding support in the people, collectively use the armed force as direct violence against the government. Civil war is an armed battle between political, national and other antagonistic social groups in one state for purpose of accomplishment of political and economic interests. Significant causes for it can be also accumulation of unsolved social, economic, political and other relations among the peoples. In case of internal conflicts it is very important to timely find out whether it is the word about civil war or some other sort of internal armed conflict. There are many cases in history that internal unrests, uprisings and civil wars, including even military coups and the state coups, were supported from abroad for purpose of accomplishment of interests of great powers or creation of appropriate environment for foreign military intervention – aggression. Most concrete example of encouraging of internal conflicts by some great powers was creation of turbulent state of affairs in Kosovo and Metohija as a vanguard for aggression of the NATO-pact on Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.
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The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (1918–1929), really The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941) has been constituted on the principles of unitary national state in the spirit of yugoslavian idea of ”three tribes of one nation” (Serbs, Croats, Slovenians). In this first yugoslavian state two censuses were conducted, 1921 and 1931. (census 1941. was disabled because of war and occupation). In keeping with yugoslavian integrationally national policy ethnonational structure of population was adapted on the basics of native language. By language basics the national minorities were censused, from which albanian, german and hungarian minority in 1931. had 10,6% from total population of Yugoslavia. Structure of the population by religious affiliation was adapted by details for Christian churches and israelians (Jews, by the type of religious rite). The confessional characteristics have a special importance for studying correlations and identification nationallity with confession. According to public data from national statistics four tables were composed showing structure of population of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by native language and religious affilities.
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Catherine Gibson - History, Memory, and Urban Symbolic Geographies: Recent Contributions to the Historiography of Vilnius Theodore R. Weeks, Vilnius between Nations, 1795–2000 (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2015), 308 pp. Dangiras Mačiulis and Darius Staliūnas, Lithuanian Nationalism and the Vilnius Question, 1883–1940 (Marburg: Herder Institut, Studien zur Ostmitteleuropaforschung, 2015), 236 pp.
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This paper argues for a relational perspective in the social sciences that sees the formerSecond World as connected to both the former First and Third Worlds. Rather than themono-directionality, especially between the First and Second Worlds, assumed by manymodernisation and globalisation approaches, this article suggests that these „worlds”have been mutually constitutive. Making globalisation, postcolonial and postsocialiststudies speak to each other, the article places postsocialism in a new global context. Relationalityhas consequences not only for how we see the ontology but also the politicalpossibilities of the post-socialist global. As such, this article develops a constructive critiqueof Nancy Fraser’s concept of the postsocialist condition by demonstrating how classand identity politics have been strategically fused in the region during and after statesocialism, relying primarily on research in Hungary. Empirically, the article argues that theinteraction of state socialist and postsocialist histories with new Western projects of thepolitics of recognition – such as cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, global civil society,and postnationalism – had the effect of impoverishing national public discourses, whichled to undemocratic results in Eastern Europe, and created a favourable atmosphere forthe extreme right wing.
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