Transitions Online_Middle Europa-Late Bloomers
The Czech weapons that have appeared in Azerbaijan might indicate that Central Europeans are finally learning the realpolitik games of the West.
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The Czech weapons that have appeared in Azerbaijan might indicate that Central Europeans are finally learning the realpolitik games of the West.
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The couple, who survived a previous assassination attempt in June, were attacked just outside Kyiv
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Apparent coup attempt broke out when local leader sacked a longtime rival.
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The independence referendum held by the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), on 25 September 2017, increased the tension in the region and caused many debates. The establishment of an independent Kurdish state is not only an attack on the territorial integrity of Iraq, but also a serious threat against the countries of the region, like Turkey, Iran and Syria in which significant Kurdish population lives. It is clear that the KRG’s move has triggered a new and difficult problem in the Middle East which one of the danger zones in the world for the international peace and security. Despite all these dangers, the administration of Kurdistan in Erbil maintains its assertion that this referendum for independence is based on the right to self-determination which legitimately accepted by the international community and the UN. In this article, the historical background of the right of self-determination of peoples and the UN’s approach to this issue are explained with some examples and referendum for independence initiated by the KRG and its possible consequences are assessed.
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Since terrorism is a matter of both national and international threats, working on terrorism and terrorist organization with different aspects, could be considered as beneficial one. In order to combat against this threat considering the sources of terrorism financing, whether there is a PKK and narco-terror relationship and examine the causes and consequences of this connection is deemed necessary. Accordingly, it may also be useful to explore, the benefits of the PKK terrorist organization thanks to drug trafficking and examine its presence at different stages of drug trafficking. Therefore, first of all, the concept of narco-terrorism will be emphasized and drug trafficking activities of the PKK terrorist organization will be evaluated in this context. In addition to this, drug trafficking activities the PKK has done to meet the financial need, will be discussed in more detail, from its establishment until today.
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In Central Asia co-occur external and internal factors, which are having impact on terrorism rise. Particularly neighbourhood with Afghanistan and Pakistan enables a specific environment for a net connections and collaboration for radical groups. The Fergana Valley is an example of internal factors effect. The problem of poverty, lack of infrastructure and ethnic conflicts ease radicalism and terrorism rise.
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The commentary includes the most important trends confirmed the current knowledge in the SIPRI Yearbook 2016. Every year the organization in a comprehensive manner shows the activity of international actors in terms of world military expenditure, international arms transfers, arms production, nuclear forces, armed conflicts and multilateral peace operations.
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The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan poses a great danger to the Afghanistan state itself as well as for the neighboring countries. A decreasing interest from the United States of America, NATO and other key players due to a long war and other geopolitical challenges will leave Afghanistan with the minimum outer support for the future. The science of conflict resolution is offering a variety of theories that could lead endless wars and conflicts to an end. The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan is challenging those theories, while the resolution is crucial for the Afghanistan people right now. But are those theories reflected in the current actions of the US, NATO and Afghanistan governments? And do those theoretical actions lead to a better future regarding conflict resolution? The purpose of this article was to analyze the current policies of third parties influencing the current conflict in Afghanistan to determine the most relevant conflict prevention theory that could support conflict resolution most effectively in the future. To achieve the mentioned purpose, the following tasks were designed. First, the most relevant conflict prevention theories, applicable to the Afghanistan case, were analyzed and the main characteristics were identified. Secondly, the actions of NATO, US and Afghanistan, connected to the conflict resolution efforts, were identified and analyzed. After that, actions mentioned above were compared with theoretical approaches from different theories and certain trends were detected. Later on, research was focused to detect particular elements that were relevant to each theory and further actions concentrated on identifying the trend of these elements for each theory, while doing a comparative comparison analysis, which was based on selected timeframes. Afterward, the trends for each theory were compared and – by doing this – the most applicable theory was identified that could be later used in practice to resolve the current conflict. Research showed that: 1. All conflict prevention theories showed that resolution is possible only if all parties are involved in the processes and practically commit to actions. Currently this is not the case in Afghanistan. 2. Some conflict resolution theories consider similar actions that currently the NATO, US and Afghanistan governments are using in the region. 3. One of the analyzed conflict resolution theories could be applied practically in the Afghanistan case. The conflict prevention theory is the most flexible and has the widest action set in comparison with other theories. 4. The conflict prevention theory reflects the current US actions in Afghanistan, when the decreasing US support for the Afghanistan government in security, governance and in other sectors influences the weakening security situation. The effectiveness of conflict prevention theory is low due to the Taliban’s absence in the negotiations, and this fact does not influence any recognition that the most relevant theory that could support current conflict resolution in the most effective way in Afghanistan is the conflict prevention theory.
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This article explores the major approaches to the study of conflict resolution strategy from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. It argues that conflict resolution strategy, as a civil integration resource, is a necessary tool for overcoming deep-rooted ethnic conflicts in the unstable North Caucasus. This research pursues the goal of analyzing how the strength of civil integration can affect conflict resolution and peacebuilding. The author considers the essential factors of protracted ethnic conflicts and emphasizes the destabilizing role of the repoliticization of ethnicity in a crisis society. The concept of ethnic, “identity-based” conflicts is the heuristic theoretical model of exploring causes for increased ethnoreligious tensions in the North Caucasus. This article focuses on the ability of conflict resolution strategy to de-escalate growing tensions and transform protracted identity-based conflicts. The need to stimulate civil integration is caused by moral and structural causes: from the ethical point of view, the creation of an inclusive society is the fundamental societal goal; structural factors are related to the need to reduce inequalities and differences leading to social fragmentation and an escalation of ethnic conflicts. Among the structural conditions of regional conflicts, the author names ethnosocial inequalities, a civil identity crisis, ethnopolitical neo-authoritarianism, large-scale socioeconomic polarization and an “ideological combat” between secular modernization and religious fundamentalism. While discussing conflict resolution strategies, it is necessary to consider the following: 1) Peace and integration within the North Caucasus is a macropolitical project, the content of which is determined by issues of social cohesion and civil solidarity; 2) The development of the North Caucasus after the end of armed ethnic conflicts shows the inadmissibility of political demodernization, fundamentalism and isolationism. Today, the North Caucasus remains a crucially geopolitical macroregion, as it forms the southern volatile frontier of Russia. In this case, conflict resolution strategy must serve as an integrational and preventive tool on the conflict environment by way of providing structural solutions for deep-rooted cultural antagonisms, transforming and rationalizing ethnoregional contradictions.
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In the context of public international law and relations between principles of territorial integrity and right to self-determination, independence of Kosovo will never be legal if it is not recognized by Serbia. This can be concluded from the examples of violent secession of Bangladesh and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. That is why Serbia still has a right to decide about the independence of Kosovo and Metohija despite signing Brussels Agreement and the fact that 100 UN member states recognized Kosovo as an independent state. Forty years after the secession of northern part of the island, Nicosia has not recognized Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus, which caused that this secessionist creation does not become a member of the UN. Its independence is not full from the perspective of international law, and this fact that cannot be disputed in spite of the factual occupation of the northern part of island by Turkey.On the other side, Pakistan recognized the independence of Bangladesh and forever lost half of its population and state territory. In return, half of its foreign debt was written off, 90,000 prisoners were released and 13,000 square kilometers of territory in western part of Pakistan, controlled by India, were returned. However, no one is offering anything similar to Serbia to recognize the independence of Kosovo. Debts of Kosovo towards IMF and World Bank are paid by Serbia. In addition, if Serbia recognized the independence of Kosovo, Serbia would lose about 100,000 Serbs living on that territory and about 1,200 square kilometers of territory in the northern part of Kosovo which is not controlled by Priština. In that context, it is clear that principles of territorial integrity are still stronger in international law then right to self-determination.Postmodernist theories have a goal to hide that fact. Key of the independence of so-called “Kosovo” is still in hands of Belgrade. That is why there are so many persistent attempts and strong pressures from the West to recognize the independence of “Kosovo”. Example of Cyprus shows how to resist those attempts within the framework of public international law (by applying the principles of territorial integrity). However, if in the future Serbia chooses the same approach as Pakistan in the case of Bangladesh, Kosovo will be lost forever. At that moment, it would be clear that the relations of great powers in the world have changed.
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Well-meaning activists from afar wanting to immerse themselves in helping activities in a removed region must arm themselves with two defensive strategies. First, they should get informed on the history of the region as much as possible becoming avid students of recent and more historically removed events of importance. Second, perhaps more difficult, they must make sure they do not fall pray to on going word games that can obscure their overall goal and purpose. This paper is a modest contribution to the latter task. It is an attempt to engage in what might be termed the ethics of international activism by focusing on the interplay between pro-actively describing foreign conflicts and the limitations placed by international law on countries that might want to take strategic advantage from such conflicts.
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The review of: „Balkanski paradoksi. Ogledi o raspadu Jugoslavije“ by Božidar Jakšić; Beogradski krug, Beograd 2001
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Radical feminism represents one of the types of the feminist theory, founded on the attitude that the society is based on the patriarchal grounds, because of which women are marginalized and discriminated against. This theory can be defined as a conflict theory because it is based on the assumption that a society consists of opposed fractions (sexes) whose relations are based on the domination of men over women, as well as the one that a society and different relations within it can be best described by observing these relations and the attitudes of sexes toward them. Since the radical feminist movement had been founded on the principles of Marxism, which, as well, represents the most important conflict theory, the comparative analysis of Marxism and this type of feminism is the key component of this research, in order to see similarities and differences between the two theories, and, based on those, define some of the main characteristics of the radical feminism as a conflict theory.
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Radikalni feminizam predstavlja jedan od pravaca feminističke teorije, nastale na stavu da je društveni sistem zasnovan na patrijarhalnim osnovama, što za posledicu ima marginalizaciju i diskriminaciju žena u svim sferama društva. Ovaj teorijski pravac može da se definiše kao teorija konflikta, s obzirom na to da je nastao na osnovnoj pretpostavci da je društvo sačinjeno od suprotstavljenih frakcija (polova), čiji se odnosi zasnivaju na dominaciji muškaraca nad ženama, kao i da društvo i različiti odnosi unutar njega najbolje mogu da se objasne posmatrajući ove odnose i stavove polova prema njima. S obzirom na to da je radikalni feministički pokret nastao na principima marksizma, koji, ujedno, predstavlja najznačajniju teoriju konflikta, za ovo istraživanje je ključna komparativna analiza ove vrste feminizma i marksizma, kako bi se uvidele njihove sličnosti i razlike, i, na osnovu njih, definisale neke od glavnih karakteristika radikalnog feminizma kao teorije konflikta.
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Privatisation of security did not appear in the process of revolution. Under conditions of deepening international relations, as well as integration and globalisation processes, security of the state, as well as other entities, is subject to a number of dependencies. The article casts some doubt on how much states are prepared to take such actions, while not losing the attribute of monopoly on violence. Moreover, the article presents doubts about the ranks of modern armed forces. Private Military Firms (PMFs) are new actors the actions of which affect the security. The contemporary image of the PMF functioning is a phenomenon on a global scale. In the twenty-first century, small businesses can have a huge impact on the reality and international affairs. Leaving military firms without state control proves that they do not understand the dynamics, range, risks and challenges posed by cooperation with entities that are allowed to use force. Furthermore, despite devastating consequences that occurred during the state stabilisation operations, these firms continued to outsource services to contractors, while not creating any legal control over them.
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The author pleads for scientific research on peace and the maintenance of peaceful relationships, as well as human rights within and between countries. Problems of peace and war in European civilization have a prominent place not only in doctrines concerning worldviews and religions but also in philosophical systems. The author points towards the importance of peace not only seen as an establishment of a political condition without danger for biological survival but also in terms of worthwhile living and the realization of freedom in the political community.
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At the present time the world is faced with the problem of global peril (danger) and global security. It is endangered by possible self destruction through war, ecological catastrophe, and in other ways. This means that there are still antagonistic forces that generate wars and other ways of endangering the world. The basic danger comes from the gap between rich and poor, i.e. developed and undeveloped states and nations. Humanity must become aware of its basic interest (freedom and safety for every man, all nations and states, and the whole human community) and to adapt its behaviour accordingly. Reason and basic (general) interests must become the main milestone of human individual and collective behaviour and action. The forces acting for Great Serbia and led by Serbia, Montenegro and the Yugoslav National Army are waging an agressive war of conquest against Croatia. This is a proof that »manufacturers of war« still exist although such a war is considered as a crime against freedom, peace, and humanity, and has in addition proved to be an inadequate means to achieve political and other interests and aims. Through its defense Croatia has affirmed that it values freedom above everything and has provided the world community with an opportunity to act as a general ambiance of peace, freedom and democracy. It is to the world community that the next move belongs.
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Londonska konferencija može se promatrati kao jedan od niza pokušaja da se na tlu bivše Jugoslavije zaustavi rat, uspostavi kakav, takav normalan red stvari i na toj osnovici omoguće razgovori o mirnom razdruživanju iz već nepostojeće države.
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U nastojanjima da pomognu u sređivanju prilika na prostoru bivše Jugoslavije mnogi međunarodni subjekti već dulje vrijeme izriču brojne zaključke i donose preporuke, šalju promatrače i miritelje, koji u ponečem uspijevaju, ali najčešće ne uspijevaju učiniti pozitivne pomake.
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Review of: „The Disintegration of Yugoslavia" Yearbook of European Studies; ed. by Martin van den Heuvel and Jan G. Siccama Rodopi; Amsterdam — Atlanta, GA 1992, 219 p. by: Ksenija Jurišić
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