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Slovakia combines a high energy dependence with high energy intensity and relies on energy imports, mostly from Russia. However, in recent years this Central European country has made progress in terms of building interconnections in the gas sector, and market coupling in the power sector. Diversification is now possible for gas as well as oil supplies. Slovakia now faces a different challenge: to preserve its role as a gas transit country, and to resume its role as an electricity exporter. As the spectre of Nord Stream 2 looms over Slovakia, the country is looking for opportunities to offset the negative effects of the offshore project. The transmission system operator Eustream, owned by the government at 51 per cent, is seeking new business opportunities. It has been successful in transporting increased volumes of gas to Ukraine, thanks to the reverse flow. It has been much less successful, however, in selling its new pipeline project, Eastring, to Romania, and in pursuing an interconnection with Poland, an LNG import country. In the meantime, both Eustream and the Slovak government seem to be approaching a compromise with Moscow, which will allow Slovakia to continue transporting Russian gas westwards despite Nord Stream2. It was Poland, however, who made the game-changing decision on the project of Gazprom and its Western partners. The Polish competition authority effectively suspended the joint consortium, complicating the operational and financial prospects of the project.
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For over five decades Taiwan was predominantly perceived by the international community as a function of regional balance of power network in East Asia and of the United States and People’s Republic of China relations. However, after almost 30 years of democratic change, Taiwanese internal politics is slowly growing out of the diplomatic cross–strait framework and Beijing–Taipei economic rapprochement scenarios. The Sunflower Movement protests and November 29th, 2014 defeat of ruling Kuomintang in local elections indicate an introduction of a new variable – Taiwanese society – in cross–strait formula.
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The author concentrates in the paper on the trade and financial relations between the United States of America and People’s Republic of China over the period 2005–2015. The growing interdependence of the two leading economies on the Western (the US) and Eastern (China) hemispheres undoubtedly is a salient factor in global economy that needs to be scrupulously studied. The geoeconomic competition between the two states overlaps the concomitant geopolitical rivalry. It is one of the most germane phenomenon in the global economic and political relations of the contemporary world.
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Non–Governmental Organizations (NGO) activities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are specified by missing mutual diplomatic representation between the two Koreas, and also between the DPRK and the US. This fact helps to increase the importance and prestige of NGOs, the role of individuals and groups in cultural, sport and civic exchanges when participating in mediation of humanitarian and development aid to the DPRK. The entrepreneurs, who are willing to invest in DPRK (despite the adverse conditions) and employ North Korean workers, play an irreplaceable role as well. A summary of these activities provides an overall picture of the presence and impact of non–governmental actors.
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The decision–making process in Japan has been characterized by extensive powers possessed by the bureaucrats who often overshadowed their political superiors. Foreign policy making was not an exception. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) boasted strong control over Japan’s diplomacy. While the role of civil servants was theoretically limited to the implementation of the decisions made by politicians, in reality the administrative staff used a range of informal sources of power to act as arbiters of state matters. Only after the entry into force of Hashimoto’s administrative reform in 2001 did top–level decision makers gain new institutional tools that helped them to conduct an independent foreign policy on a more regular basis. Without denying this conventional wisdom, I argue that the politicians could occasionally play a significant role in Japan’s diplomacy even before implementation of institutional changes at the beginning of the 21st century. Under special circumstances, prime ministers, chief cabinet secretaries and foreign ministers were able to exert a considerable influence on the course of foreign policy, sometimes even changing its direction. Up to the 1990s the most influential figures in the government had enough authority to overcome the domination of the bureaucrats and impose their own will on MOFA.
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The problem of the US military bases, including the relocation of the Futenma military air station and a construction of a Futenma replacement facility (FRF) in Okinawa, has been a difficult and contested issue in Japanese domestic and foreign affairs for decades. In November 1995 Prime Minister Murayama and Vice President Al Gore established a Special Action Committee on Okinawa for deliberation on the reduction and realignment of the military bases. In April 1996 President Clinton and PM Hashimoto decided on the relocation and construction of the FRF in the prefecture within five to seven years. As of 2015 the prospects for implementation seem dim, especially after the electoral victory of the anti–base governor Onaga Takeshi in November 2014. This article focuses on the decision–making process under two consecutive prime ministers, Murayama and Hashimoto, since it was during their premiership that the issue was set on the agenda and decided upon. The article argues that on one hand PM Murayama made several important decisions, but lacking enough experience and power as a minor coalition member, as well as due to short term in office, was not able to supervise implementation of his decisions. On the other hand, PM Hashimoto did exercise strong leadership in regard to Futenma Air Base, but as the LDP president his decisions run along the general policy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is in charge of the foreign policy formation on daily base. Furthermore, the American side agreed to the relocation since the benefits – a new and technologically advanced facility for the US army, entirely paid by the Japanese government, outweighed the hardship of the transfer. In the entire process, the Okinawan community, demanding removal of the bases outside the prefecture, was not consulted and hence the ongoing opposition to the US bases and FRF.
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Democracy as political regime since Antiquity is based on a fundamental principle - the equality of free citizens. On the other hand this regime coexists with economic system of the market, which is based on competition and therefore produces inequality. This inevitably creates tension between democracy and the market, which are governed differently. Most research so far has not found strong impact of the democratic regime on social inequalities. But the issue is the opposite impact of inequalities on democracies. The article argues that deepening social inequalities unavoidably undermine democracy.
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The project ‘Russia’s (Dis)Information Activities Against the Nordic-Baltic Region’ was initiated in 2016 as a reaction to the intensification of Russia’s influence activities against the West on the backdrop of the information campaign against Ukraine and the conflict in the southeast Ukraine. Previous studies conducted by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom COE) led to conclusion that Russia is employing a multi-level and multi-direction system of influence to advance its political and military goals. However these studies did not provide in-depth answers about the origins of the various information flows, their actual goals, and their ultimate effect on the social and political processes in Western countries. As pointed out by prominent British journalist Edward Lucas: ‘Even in the narrow question of the effectiveness of Russia’s overtly published propaganda, we have limited information about who consumes it, in what quantity, when, where and why. So before getting too excited about the lies and hatred spewed out by, say, Sputnik or RT, we need to know where it is landing. The answers may vary sharply by country, and across the demographic and social spectrums. But finding them requires quantitative and qualitative research.
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The Allied Military Government in the Zone A of Venezia Giulia that existed between mid-June 1945 and mid-September 1947 was an occupation formation of the Allied army whose primary aim was to stop the Yugoslav military and political penetration (and annexation) in the territories that formally had belonged to the Kingdom of Italy but that were earmarked to be united with their mother countries (Slovenia and Croatia) in political documents of the Partisan movement, so as to prevent the Peace Conference from facing a fait accompli. Another, no less important goal was social and economic. The Allied Military Government was to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe and to restore the economy at least to some degree and enable it to provide for the population. To be sure, it was also necessary to prevent anarchy and lawlessness immediately after the war. It is questionable to what degree it succeeded in performing these tasks. It did manage to prevent the more violent consequences of political frictions, but not the process of mass emigration, primarily of Italian town population, as well as the change of the town’s geo-political status. The fact that the Allied Military Government was the butt of criticism of both the pro-Yugoslav and the pro-Italian political forces, testifies that it strove to do its job in good faith, to stay neutral and abide by the agreements that had been signed as much as it was possible with regard to the conflict-laden political situation among the former allies.
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The liberation from the Fascist occupation of a number of East European countries by the Soviet army was the first step in the process of transformation of political systems and the formation of the Soviet block. The dominant position in the Balkans was taken by the Communist Yugoslavia which strove to expand its influence in the region. In the first phase such a role of Yugoslavia tallied nicely with the interests of USSR which was willing to delegate part of its power to Yugoslavia. Albania, whose independence and territorial integrity were guaranteed by the agreement between USSR, USA and Great Britain, was in informal alliance with Yugoslavia and in the sphere of its military and political interests which, was one of the main reasons for Moscow to hand that country over to Belgrade in summer 1946 for »vicarious« administration. Having entrusted the Yugoslavs with this task, USSR took over the responsibility to supply aid to Albania, retaining at the same time the control over the execution of decision concerning foreign policy of that country. During 1946 and 1947 Yugoslavia concluded with Albania a number of treaties concerning economy and finance. It reorganized Albanian army according to the Yugoslav standards, which, to all intents, should lead to Albania becoming one of the Yugoslav republics. The Soviet leadership considered such policy realization of the agreements which had been reached, but only until the moment when, the Yugoslavs broke them – in the opinion of the Cremlin. Parallel aid from these two countries caused a clash of interests among the Albanian leaders and led to the formation of two groups, one of which started to consider the alliance with Yugoslavia a burden and to turn increasingly toward Moscow. In November 1947, under pressure from the Yugoslavs, the leader of that group, N. Spiru ended his life in suicide. This enraged Stalin who summoned Djilas to talks in Moscow. By the end of the year it became known in Cremlin that Tito intended to send an infantry division to Albania near the Greek border, which was a severe »transgression« that would endanger Soviet interests in the region. Stalin talked about that to Yugoslav leaders in February 1948 who were summoned to Moscow together with the Bulgarians to be »filled in«. The totality of these circumstances was one of the reasons for the conflict with Yugoslavia which would begin soon. In that experiment of the Cremlin Albania was held hostage by ambitions of the two Communist leaders, one of whom, having entrusted that country to Yugoslav patronage wasn't able to foresee all consequences of such a step, so he made an ultimatum to Yugoslavia at the crucial juncture. Disregarding the scale of its involvment in the events in Albania, Yugoslavia fulfilled the demands of the Cremlin, but it was forced to withdraw from Albania during the increasing conflict with USSR. Stalin's estimate that one could continue to run Yugoslavia from the Cremlin by relying on ideological instruments and economic pressure wasn't justified. For its part, Albania proved a faithful ally of Moscow until the end of the Stalin's era, together with other faithful and enraged (for reasons of their own) enemies of »Titoism«. On the whole, the episode of Yugoslav-Albanian relations which developed under Cremlin's careful auspicies during the first postwar years showed, coupled with other factors, the deeply flawed character of the policy on which Stalin tried to build his East-European empire.
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The controversial issue of creation of a Yugoslavian state on the eve and during World War I is defined in polemical style in this article. At the same time, the French-Russian cooperation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is considered as a wide geostrategic context for the Serbian Yugoslavian project because it promoted reorientation of Serbia from Russia to France and resulted in creation of the Yugoslav state. The latest reviews of Serbian and foreign historiography aim to define the ideas and processes which made it possible. The studied works partly disprove of and partly develop the historiography of the previous period, which is also partially considered in the article.
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Based primarily on the documents of the conference of the Executive Committee of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia (UCY) held in March 1959 the paper analyses the approach of Tito's leadership to Kosovo. It tries to point out the main tendencies in the approach to the Albanian question and the different opinions of certain members of the highest leadership of the UCY. A gradual change in viewing the Albanian problem by the leading people of Tito’s regime set in in the late 1950s. Many members began to be aware of the importance of the Albanian community in Yugoslavia and the necessity of improving its situation, above all access to education and to employment. The need to industrialize Kosovo as soon as possible was stressed. Although these tendencies existed, the repressive elements of Tito's regime remained dominant, above all the secret police.
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Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie zmian, które wystąpiły w polityce zagranicznej Polski po jej akcesji do Unii Europejskiej, oraz analiza ekonomicznych aspektów współpracy pomiędzy Polską i jej wschodnimi sąsiadami, a także próba przewidzenia dalszych wątków współpracy pomiędzy Polską, jako częścią Unii Europejskiej, i wschodnimi sąsiadami UE.
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Ove godine navršava se četvrt veka od „avgustovskog puča” (1991) čiji je neuspeh ubrzao raspad Sovjetskog Saveza i doveo do nastanka Ruske Federacije i drugih nezavisnih država – članica negdašnjeg „neraskidivog saveza”. Za brojne „sovjetologe” koji su decenijama proučavali „prvu zemlju socijalizma” mirnodopski slom svetske supersile koji je, na početku svog drugog predsedničkog mandata, Vladimir Putin nazvao „najvećom geopolitičkom katastrofom XX veka” (Putin, 2005), bio je potpuno neočekivan. Stoga je razumljivo što se još vode teorijski sporovi o uzrocima i dinamici raspada države koja se njenim podanicima i inostranim posmatračima „činila večnom, sve dok nije nestala” (Yurchak, 2005). Tokom devedesetih godina prošlog veka ove rasprave su pretežno bile usmerene na tumačenje sovjetske istorije, jer su polazile od uverenja da je, za razliku od neprozirne prošlosti, budućnost postsovjetskih društava i država lako predvidljiva. [...]
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