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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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Banja Vrućica, 17-19. maj 2023.
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This thematic collection represents an attempt to systematically address some issues related to the use and exploitation of armed force, which is one of the central themes of international relations. The contemporary international context is constantly changing, and after the end of the Cold War there was a tendency to increasingly talk about the superiority of force in the era of globalization, that is, about the predominance of so-called non-military security threats. Unfortunately, practice shows that traditional armed force is a constant companion of international relations, which proves the justification, both social and scientific, for now, towards the end of the second decade of the 21st century, to re-examine some of the fundamental concepts and practices of international relations related to its use...
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