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Post-communist Romania still caught in the net of ubiquitous and unstoppable globalization tries to articulate the need of redefining its national identity in the context of modernisation and Europeanisation. After spectacular and unpredictable geopolitical changes of recent decades that have enhanced interactions between societies and distinct cultures, national identity has become an important topic. The idea about national identities these days seemed to incorporate increased expressions of patriotism. Witnessing the mixture of worlds and a real process of hybridisation, where each nation leads a fierce competition to build and promote a favourable image within the global communication space, the article aims to expose the perception about the image of Romania and Romanians in the eyes of foreigners.
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This study assesses the competitive status of the leading Russian metallurgical enterprises. The authors have demonstrated that the imperfection of the applied ranking methodology does not allow to use the existing ratings in order to assess the competitiveness of businesses. Due to this, it is concluded that the assessment of the impact of recessionary effects on the performance of the largest domestic metallurgical companies could only be accomplished through the application of analytical methods for assessing competitiveness. The basic methods of assessing the competitiveness of enterprises were reviewed. The authors substantiated that the most appropriate method to assess the competitive status of several businesses was to use dynamic method of assessment of the competitiveness of enterprises. The mathematical apparatus of the dynamic method of assessment of the competitiveness of enterprises was provided; its methodological principles were revealed. The calculations of the level of competitiveness of the leading Russian metallurgical enterprises were provided. Their competitiveness both in the domestic market and in the international arena was estimated. Competitive advantages and disadvantages of the companies were identified, and the basic ways to increase their competitiveness were defined. In conclusion, the authors determined the areas of further research on the subject.
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Granica je poseban fenomen čovjekove potrebe za obilježavanjem, označavanjem suverenosti. Granica nije linija, već prostor koji predstavlja pogranični pojas, zonu susreta ili razdvajanja dva entiteta. Bez sumnje predstavlja jednu od važnih osobenosti u političkom, ekonomskom, privrednom i kulturnom životu Crne Gore. Nesumnjivo je da u crnogorskoj istoriografiji ima vrijednih podataka o granicama. Moglo bi se reći da je ova tema nova, interesantna i značajna za naučno istraživanje. Neistraženost i zanimljivost teme, kao i potreba što potpunijeg i objektivnijeg upoznavanja stanja na crnogorsko-turskoj granici, razlozi su naše opredjeljenosti za izradu rada sa ovom temom.
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The great changes that followed the year 1989 in Poland, threw the structures of then existing and functioning authorities into disarray and gave the origin of brand new decisionmaking centres. The radical change influenced the range and territorial reach of administrative, judicial and municipal authorities. The problem appears to be more absorbing when adding that after 1989 numerous conceptions of the new territorial and administrative division of the country were published. These structural changes are after all characteristic for periods of governmental transformations in every political system. And the spatial division of a country always exerts an influence on shaping social and economic relations, together with communication system in a particular region. The problem of the new territorial division has been always presented during the times of political transformations. The old decisive centres were destroyed and the new ones are formed in the altered political, social and economic scenery of Poland after 1989. Owing to administrative division of the country, the shape of social and economic relations and communication system changes, this is why it seems challenging to study the influence of administrative divisions on modelling provincials' and administrative districts' authorities. There have been repeated changes in number and structure of territorial division in Poland between 1945 and 1996. From political and economic reasons, the new administrative centres were formed. Some attempts were made to decentralise the government, as the effect however, its centralisation took place. In order to study spatial influence of the authorities, variability of the centres and connections between different dimensions of the governments, there have been pointed out a couple of aims to be reached during the research. One of the aims was to mark presently and previously functioning territorial arrangement in reference to historical and geographical lands and economic regions. Giving a try to study territorial measurement in relation to political, religious, social and economic structures. Presenting the changes in spatial differentiation of political, economical, catholic church, administrative and judicial, before and after 1989, and selfgovernmental power after its one year functioning, centres of power. There have been put a lot of efforts in the research to demonstrate spatial differentiation of centres of power during the times of political transformation. The attempt ha s been made to describe and explain the process of territorial distribution of authorities, on a local level (administrative units), and on over-regional level (province) understood as functioning informal connections between the representatives of political power, administrative and self-governed centres. The last aim of the research was to show the factors forming provincials' and administrative centres' of real power and its changes after 1989.
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The current social and economic situation of Ukraine, and especially the impoverishment of society and the growing problems of the budget, tend to pay attention to those areas of the state that can generate a threat to Europe. There is growing gap between the authorities and some nationalist circles, who have a large Representation in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This situation makes it necessary to approach pessimistic about the implementation of the Agreement "Minsk II" in the field of de-escalation of the conflict in Donbas. Therefore, Ukraine can talk about a permanent threat of destabilization. It occurs in a special way in many areas of the western part of Ukraine. Separatist processes take place in particular in the Transcarpathian region. There is growing national Ruthenian movement toward autonomy, supported by the Hungarian minority. Moreover the region is experiencing sharp fighting between criminal organizations associated with Ukrainian nationalists.
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The main goal of the submitted paper is to analyse RAMSI mission to Solomon Islands concerning the region’s security as a result of Australia's middle power engagementn in the region. RAMSI represents a multilateral state-building regional intervention based on cooperation of a regional organisation (The Pacific Island Forum) and Australia as resulting from its middle power engagements.
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As the world’s biggest donor, for the developing countries, the European Union is an example of how to solve complex problems in a more and more interconnected world. Article hypothesis is represented by the fact that European values and principles have been established and developed around the construction of a new action concept, designed to meet the challenges of the European space. This paper analysis the context in which were formed and developed EU values and principles, basic elements in construction and development of European Development Assistance Policy. Which were the philosophical, political, economic and social determinants that contributed to building the European values and principles? To what extent geopolitical context changes have influence the evolution of development cooperation policy of the European Union? What are the effects that development policy has produced, analyzed from a diachronic perspective? These are the questions we will answer during the work, critically analyzing the literature and empirical data from the field.
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Human societies have traditionally had clear territorial foundations. People knew and interacted with others within their community and, to a lesser extent, with people from neighbouring communities. Geography and distance mattered. Globalization, however, has led to the rise of “supraterritoriality” or deterritorialization, through which the constraints traditionally imposed by geography and distance have been substantially overcome. Some authors have associated contemporary globalization with a tendency towards deterritorialization, so that social space can no longer be wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders. Deterritorialisation is a name given to the problematic of territory losing its significance and power in everyday life. Territory, the concept suggest, is no longer the stable and unquestioned actuality it one was. Rather than it being an assumed given, its position and status now in question. Term deterritorialisation is one among many other - globalization, glocalisation, postcolonial, postnational, transnational, cyberspace - that have been coined to try to describe the rearranging and restructuring of spatial relations as a consequence of the technological, material and geopolitical transformation of the late twentieth century. For political geographers interested in conceptualizing the changing world political map, discourses of deterritarialization are significant as sings and symtoms of geopolitical change.
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Although the existence of some regulating documents, called capitulations, concerning the relations on various plans, between the Romanian Country, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire was known, the first one of these diplomatic documents, that have been operational over time, was discovered only in 1974. It was an act that had been granted to Mihnea Turkished, in the year 1585. This important discovery has been completed, with others that had the same purpose. In fact, they were some diplomatic documents, with the role of Treaty, which has regulated quite explicitly, the status of the two Romanian principalities, in relations with the suzerain power. The most important fact of their contents was the recognition of the internal autonomy of principalities and a certain degree of freedom, in relations outside the borders. The price was that Romanian countries paid was ,however, to never become hostile to Ottoman interests, integrating in the Ottoman foreign policy and paying an annual tribute.
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The aim of the study is to show the main socially determined reasons for the hitherto failure of the transformation process in Ukraine. Social factors of failures have been divided into external and internal ones. The main external one lies in the imperialist politics of the Russian Federation exploiting the existence of the "homo sovieticus'' and a large Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine. Internal factors are divided into the ones related to identity problems of Ukrainian citizens (ethnic diversity and, again, "homo sovieticus") and those resulting from the weakness of political elites, which, for almost the past quarter of a century have not been able to lead to the creation of even the initial phase of a civil society in Ukraine.
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There are many arguments for distinguishing Central Europe that can be understood as the belt of countries which runs west of the border of Germany, Austria and Italy, and to the east of the border of Russia (without the Kaliningrad enclave), Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Geographical conditions of the central part of Europe had also their impact on a formation of “the region of the centre". In the north the transitional character of land relief reflects the transient of Polish Plains. In the center of the region the existing highlands, old mountains and the Carpathian Mountains clearly separated some countries in the region from neighbors closing even the tribes of Magyars on the Hungarian Plain. In so changing its borders and extent Europe of Centre the borders of the Polish state have been also changing. It was connected with many historical facts like: the formal division between Austria, Germany and Russia and the independence period between 1918 and 1939. Together with the new geopolitical boundaries and circumstances a Polish point of view for Central Europe has changed.
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The minority policy and integration of ethnic and national minorities belong to the central concepts of domestic policy-making in nation states. The article deals with the different approaches to minority policy and integration from the perspective of the Baltic States and Slovakia. We argue about the political conditionality prior to the access to the EU in 2004 and subsequent developments in the perspective of position and protection of national minorities living in respective countries. We reveal the potential threats of minority integration and cohesive society building process, especially with regard to the historical grievance, different elites' attitudes and minority actors themselves.
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The Jive states of Northern Europe - the three Scandinavian countries together with Finland and Iceland - constitute a well-defined regional subdivision of the European subcontinent. This region Scandinavian calls “Norden”. Norden, is equally a geographical category and mental concept. The notion of Norden pertains to the economic, cultural and social homogeneity, and not the ethnic or linguistic one. Among many reasons facilitating the ongoing process of the Nordic integration and deciding about its special character, the geographical location and commonly shared historical experiences seem to be most valid and obvious. Economic factors come next in line. All the Nordic states are characterized by open, highly developed, modern and innovative economies based on knowledge, wellfunctioning services sector and technologically advanced industry.
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A reform of U.S. trade policy was among the priorities of Donald Trump’s campaign. Guidelines of the new policy developed by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, head of the National Trade Council, were then included in the Presidential Trade Agenda for 2017. A lower trade deficit is a key target seen by the new administration as a prerequisite for boosting economic growth. Duties and taxes are to be introduced to countervail unfair practices, which are among the sources of the deficit. The new administration’s preference for bilateral rather than multilateral agreements is reiterated. Keeping with his campaign promises, Trump has signed executive orders to withdraw the U.S. from Trans-Pacific Partnership and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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India’s political coherence largely depends on New Delhi’s ability to build a system ofcross-cultural compromises among various communities. While the Muslim minority has livedand prospered in India for more than one thousand years, its relations with the Hindu majorityhave not always been harmonious. The partition of India in 1947 became a political referencepoint for many radical politicians interested in inciting communal conflicts that bring thempolitical gains. Indian Muslims remain an ethnically and ideologically divided community andhave not succeeded in setting up one political party in independent India. They are usuallyrepresented by regional parties in different states, but in all-India elections they frequentlyvote en bloc for the Indian National Congress, which is commonly perceived as a secularparty opposed to extremist Hindu ideology. The author briefly analyses the history of IndianMuslims, presents the political consequences of the “Two Nations” theory and explains thereasons behind inter-religious clashes in contemporary India, predicting that the position ofIndian Muslims will become a subject of fierce political debate in the years to come.
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Globalization and regionalism are the two determinant factors of the contemporary world system. Regions and/or sub-regions became a decisive fact of the 21st century since no one can find a better solution to the regional problems but the region itself. Certainly this should not mean that excluding the external actors is the best way to solve the regional problems. By regarding the regionalism in tandem with globalization, the presentation aims to examine Turkey’s Balkan engagement by focusing on the principles and methods rather than explaining the chronological history of Turkey’s Balkan policy.
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U radu je izložen presjek strateških pravaca turske politike prema balkanskim državama i zaokreti koji su se u tome dešavali, kao i okolnosti koje su ih izazivale. Vjekovni uticaj Turske (Otomanskog carstva) na prostor Balkanskog poluostrva i Jugoistočne Evrope ogledao se kroz kompleksan odnos: od sukoba, osvajanja i ratova; pa do prožimanja i širenja kulture, umjetnosti, ekonomije. Sekularna Republika Turska je u najvećem dijelu XX vijeka bila zauzeta svojim unutrašnjim problemima i previranjima. Kraj Hladnog rata, promjena odnosa snaga na globalnoj svjetskoj pozornici, ekonomsko snaženje Turske i njen uticaj i značaj za muslimane u Balkanskim državama – doveli su do jačanja njenog političkog i geoekonomskog uticaja na ovom prostoru. Novi vid geopolitike, u formi geoekonomije, izvoza kapitala, investicija, slobodne trgovine, predstavlja polje za nove oblike interakcije sa balkanskim državama.
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De facto states have proved to be much more durable than initially expected and the literature on these entities has also come a long way. The internal dynamics of de facto states are now better understood, and previous simplifications have been replaced by much more sophisticated and nuanced analysis. This article looks at three remaining, and interlinked, challenges for the literature: the concept itself, the effects of non-recognition and the impact of our improved understanding of de facto states on the prospect for conflict resolution: how do we make peace with de facto states? The article calls for a widened understanding of de facto states that views them as the end-point of a spectrum of rebel governance, and emphasizes their significant variation when it comes to territorial control, institution-building, political reforms and external linkages. These differences matter when it comes to conflict resolution.
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