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This article rethinks 1989 – the year commonly treated as a milestone of regime change. As contrary to this narrow view, and with the aim of laying out the conceptual foundations of possible future research projects, we give a short overview of the way Hungary became incorporated into the capitalist world system and of the key global, economic, and geopolitical factors that influenced its dependent development. For this we present a historically sensitive, global political economic narrative within which we pay special attention to the way public debt had been accumulated and how this, in turn, shaped Hungary’s position within the world system. After our analysis of the regime change we continue with an overview of the main structural dynamics of the last two decades. Finally, through two short case studies, we show how our perspective can throw new light on the political ideologies and economic policies of the era. The accumulation of state debt was not a Hungarian specificity: instead, we argue that it was rather a result of the global restructuring process and of its concomitant effect of decreasing national state-sovereignty. In the following manner, we also argue that the emergence of debates (which were central in evaluating the regime change, revolving around issues like „democracy” vs. „dictatorship” or „planning” vs. „market”) can be better understood within our global, historical, and political economic analytical framework. In the long run we identify two economic development strategies – namely, the strategy of liberalization and the strategy of protectionism – both structured around the, nonetheless entirely unfulfilled, hope of overcoming Hungary’s semi-peripheral position by „catching up” to its Western neighbors. These strategies then can be analyzed on the base of how they relate to global cycles of accumulation; how their shifts were influenced by changes in the world system; and, in turn, how these strategies organized both various elite projects shaped by global cyclical dynamics and the interpretations about our historically unfolding dependent position.
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The main aim of the paper is to analyse the potential transitional justice mechanisms, directed at reintegration of Donbas, a territory temporarily occupied by pro-Russian separatists, being under the combination of a direct and indirect control of Kremlin, with Ukraine. In the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and a remove of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych as a consequence of Euromaidan protests held in Kyiv, in the Winter 2013/14, Ukraine became a state involved in the international armed conflict covering its Eastern provinces as a result of an external aggression of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, since early-2014, Moscow is continuously using pro-Russian militants to form and uphold unrecognised, de facto regimes of the so-called ‘Donetsk’ and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic(s)’ affecting the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. It is argued that Kyiv shall take into consideration some of the peace and restoration models applied in similar conflict or post-conflict environments, such as the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) or the experience of numerous disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programs, filled with the transitional justice component. Moreover, by emphasising the context of a military (semifrozen) conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the paper is going to shed more light on the possible application of transitional justice tool-kit in the ongoing conflicts scenarios and its potential contribution to the shift from a conflict to the postwar environment.
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The article presents in brief the history and the present of the Rusyns – one of the many European peoples “without a state”. They are an indigenous population of the Northern Carpathians inhabiting a territory in the geographical centre of Europe; however, during their millennial historical development they had their own state only once and for one day. Today, their historical region, Carpathian Ruthenia, is divided between five countries. In Ukraine, where the majority of the Rusyns lives, they do not have adequate political and cultural minority rights. In the rest of the countries, although they have different degrees of cultural and administrative autonomy, the Rusyns are facing the danger of assimilation because of their small number. Even though they are a geopolitical and ethnocultural reality, their future is at stake.
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The media have played and continue to play a significant role in many ethnic conflicts and wars that ever took place in history and through its reportage humankind has become informed and aware about ethnic-conflict on the globe through various forms. Irrespective of the increase in knowledge, media has negatively impacted the ethnic conflict by several escalations that took place because of the manner information that was provided. This study investigates what these negative impacts are by examining literature and sorting them to consider media location, outlets and presentation impact of media. An overlapping discovered has gingered the reclassification of the impact of media in the face of dilemmas. They are Psychoanalysis propaganda and profiteering, freedom and ethics, distortion of reality and public safety. The media tries to balance in order to choose the lesser consequential path to survive. However, they have all steered to an escalation of ethnic conflicts.
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The recognition of Kosovo is an issue in some part of the international community even though its independence has been recognized by 116 states and that the ICJ has given a legal opinion which confirmed that the independence was not a violation of international law. This paper analysis the pros and cons and the difficulties created by the non-recognition of Kosovo both for the region and broader, dealing not only with the political reasons and difficulties. The paper is written by using combined methodology and methods: systemic analysis, of legal analysis, and method of comparison analysis. Conclusions and recommendations are expected to be a contribution towards a further debate about the importance of the recognition of the state of Kosovo.
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The main subject of interest of this paper is the current situation and the trend of international terrorism in the European Union, explained through security analysis of the committed terrorist attacks and their influence on the European security and stability. Also, it will be shown the measures and the activities of the anti and contrary terroristic fight against the risks and the threats from the terrorism as a result of the recent terroristic attacks. Even though on international level there isn’t a common definition of the terrorism as a criminal act, the European Union and the Council of Europe through their most important documents set the concept for terrorism which has helped in the process of creating national security systems for fight against the terrorism. This paper will go through the circumstances of terrorist attacks (failed, foiled and completed) in the European Union Member States, as well as the conditions of the criminal acts through analysis of the statistical data about the court proceedings and the verdicts.
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Human rights defenders and environmentalists can be found in media content depending on the context which is influenced by different factors. We analyze 4 newspapers, oriented in different directions and showing different attitude towards the problems. Their implications may be hidden or more obvious and the role of the journalist in this field is of great importance. The final aim of the research is to find out if presenting of the problems is in public interest or it is influenced by different reasons.
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The US faces many dilemmas in facing an XXI century China. The recent crisis that has occurred in the South China Sea and issues related to the trade war between the two global powers have significantly divided the positions of both states in world affairs. The US policy of engagement and coercion, forcing China into the US liberal order has shown slow progress. Therefore, it is critical to re-evaluate the US foreign policy strategy in facing an XXI century China, which shows discontent towards the values that are promoted by the US. This paper critically analyzes the US foreign policy approach to China, provides key elements of its success, and concludes the major issues faced throughout the process of interacting with the modern global superpower known as China.
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This article analyses the process of choosing different strategies of identification by Bulgarians in Ukraine. The present state of ‘identification processes’ against the background of ‘war of memory’ and ‘invented traditions’ places them among the priority problems of science and politics. The subject of analysis is the specifics of the formation of collective memory, which is at the root of the choice of identification strategy: commemorative practices, mechanisms for the memorialization of the past, the correlation between the local history of the group and the national strategies of Bulgaria and Ukraine. The conclusion is that the choice of identification behaviour is influenced by the efficiency of social adaptation under specific historical circumstances. The social resources at the disposal of the group in any particular moment influence the choice of vectors of collective memory and predetermine the formation of defensive practices aimed at preserving the group.
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This text is based on an ethnographic study on the protests and civic initiatives that initially took place in 2013 but then continued with varying intensity throughout the following years. While applying the method of participant observation during the Gazi events’ and conducting interviews with individuals who had taken part in the protests, a main goal of this study is to grasp the transformation in the identification, articulation and presentation of important and secondary topics and problems that had been brought forward throughout the public discussions. The initial motivation of this study is the idea that after the first demonstrations and clashes, the interpretation of the political projects’ turbulence, of the reinvention of urban spaces, of the success or failure of diverse protest and resistance practices, gradually modifies the way the aforementioned events and ongoing processes are being thought and talked about. The research questions the respondents’ participation in protests, the constitution and disintegration of communities, the ‘diagnosis’, ‘prognosis’ and ‘rationale’ elements in respondents’ and informants’ micro-discourses and their acts in relation to diverse initiatives. The text attempts to systematize the observation data and the collected ‘narrative fragments’ within four ‘modes of articulation’: transformative, subjective, argumentative, and topological.
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Conference report on the International science conference '(Re)thinking socialism: knowledge, memory and oblivion of the socialist past'
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During the Cold War Turkey had excellent relations with the United States of America. Both countries needed each other and saw the Soviet Union as their main rival. Strategic Partnership was established between the two nations and USA provided military assistance to Turkey in order to contain the Soviet Union. With the assistance of the USA, Turkey managed to neutralize Soviet threat and integrate into NATO. Turkey became a close ally of the West. After the Cold War, American - Turkish relations have gradually cooled and deteriorated significantly over the last years. The aim of this article is to analyze those factors that have caused the deterioration of American – Turkish relations.
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The diplomacy of Japan towards its Asian neighbours has always been a complex issue. Throughout the years, the foreign policy of Japan has witnessed severe alterations specifically after the Second World War. Since then, new challenges and opportunities have risen which have formed a new, adapted Japanese diplomacy, albeit not disconnected from its traditional aspects and its past. The current purpose of the paper is to highlight these evolutions and challenges of the post WWII Japanese diplomacy. The focus will be on the two main neighbours and traditional partners of Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. There will be an effort to highlight the challenges that Japan experiences with the aforementioned countries, its diplomatic approaches and how these could be evolved in the near future.
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The expectations of the Western Balkans (WB) on the EU membership perspective could have been ‘undermined’ with the halt in the EU enlargement process as declared by the former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014. In the meantime, even though the WB countries were part of the EU’s regional approach through the mechanism of Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) working on the implementation of the Acquis Communautaire, the slowing down of the integration process could have economic and political consequences and threaten the regional stability. This paper shows how the Berlin Process (2014) was the proper intergovernmental initiative taken by some EU Member States to keep alive the EU integration perspective of the WB, thus refocusing the EU attention on the challenges the WB was facing on the way towards EU integration.
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This article describes the competition between China and the USA for global hegemony. Both states have hegemonic ambitions and compete with each other over the domination of Asia. The rise of China has transformed global politics, as well as the balance of the global economy. As China’s economic and military power increases steadily, its geopolitical ambitions are also constantly growing. Some experts do not exclude the possibility of conflict between China and the USA in the future. There are many potential hot spots in East Asia where conflict could erupt at any time in the future between the USA and China. Many experts doubt whether the USA and China can escape Thucydides’ Trap in the future.
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The present study focuses on expert knowledge as the most relevant information during crisis and the role of media in the selection and identification of experts whose knowledge and experience is presented to the audience. The coronavirus crisis was one of the most unexpected crises in Bulgaria and that is why the experts and their knowledge turned out to be in the focus of attention of the public, the institutions, the national operational headquarters, and the media. The purpose of this study is to examine how journalists find and impart the experts knowledge to their audiences during crises; which scientists and experts they invite for interviews; how they present them to the audience; what kind of dialogues they form and whether their attitude towards the different types of experts they talk to changes. Are there any differences in the dialogues with the experts in the two media selected – Bulgarian national radio and Darik radio – and what specifics and tendencies could be marked in the conversations with them during the period 8th of March – 8th of April 2020.
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The text focuses on the messages broadcast by the lifestyle and rhetoric of politicians and public leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic. The imposition of a central media trend is being studied - the machismo lifestyle, emphasizing the characteristics of the patriarchal type of masculinity: aggression, threats, austerity, military rhetoric. The focus on this type of patriarchal-masculine lifestyle can be used as a tool to study the consequences of infodemic.
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For the last years in Bulgaria there are more and more examples about the capturing of the big media, indecent flirtation between the media, the government and the ruling parties, pressure on editorial content, expulsion of critical journalists in the media periphery. The public space is highly radicalized due to political and economic confrontations. This negative trend is also creating new forms of alternative, opposition journalism, which is even waging a guerrilla war with the powerful political and financial centers. And probably for the first time in Bulgaria we see an opportunity for changing the dominating model – new media platforms seek financial support from the citizens.
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The aim of the article is to explain the issue of network-centricity, which operates on military grounds and characterizes modern battlefields. Considerations were divided into two parts due to the large volume of the issue. The first part contains introduction to the topic of network-centricity and analysis of impact of civilization and technological development on the emergence of network-centric concepts. It is also an attempt to define concepts focused on this subject and to show the origin of the concept. Detailed, practical issues related to methods and techniques of network centric activity and the concept of Network Centric Warfare will be discussed in the second part, which will be constitute as a separate article.
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