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Von 17. bis 21. Juli 1984fan d in Perugia zum drittenmal—nach Brüssel 1982 und Berlin 1983 — die END-Konferenz für europäische atomare Abrüstung statt. Aus Osteuropa gab es mehrere Thesenpapiere, die der Konferenz vorgelegt wurden: Janos Kis untersuchte die Frage »Friedensbewegung und europäische Einheit«, Milan Kunderas Aufsatz über »Jalta und seine gesellschaftlichen Folgern lag ebenso vor wie eine Reihe von Texten aus děr DDR. Wir wählten zwei Papiere aus, die insofern neue Aspekte in die Diskussion bringen, als sie beide die Meinung vertreten, die Friedensbewegung müsse über ihren eigenen, recht eng gesteckten Rahmen hinauswachsen hin zu einer Überlebensbewegung. Wie das konkret gemeint ist, veranschaulichen die beiden Beiträge.
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Review of: Tomasz Pudłocki - Prawda historyczna a odpowiedzialność prawna za jej zniekształcanie, red. nauk. Arkadiusz Radwan, Marcin Berent, Warszawa 2019, Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck, ss. XL + 470
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This paper observes some of the most distinguished characteristics of the Islamic State related to the use of modern technology and tries to drawn some important conclusions between the terrorist’s quasi state, modernity and technology. After the examination of the functioning of IS at the peak of its powers between 2014 and 2017, the analysis turns to terrorists’ various online activities. All of them are showing the Islamic State’s reliance on modern technology, especially IT, as one of the most important aspects of its terrorist activities that greatly contributed not only to the effectiveness, but to the essential definition of first modern terrorist quasi-state. The second part of the paper deals with the Islamic State`s fully reliance on technology in its own legitimization (both among Islamist rivals and “infidels”). The celebration and the fascination with modern technology as main IS characteristics make it different from other Islamist terrorist groups, and trying to establish relations between modernity and terrorism based on religious fundamentalism. The paper also tries to find answers to the question whether IS’s ultra-modern techno approach is responsible for its transformation from a classical fundamentalist terrorist group into some kind of modern political ideology and a social movement with totalitarian and murderous characteristics.
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The Covid-19 crisis has been a flaws' indicator that every society is affected by, including Romania. The health crisis has been toppled by political turmoil and a concerning increase of the gap between the population and the ruling elites. This crisis is founded on disinformation, fake news, and the rise of the far-right. This paper argues that there is a need for political dissidents' direct involvement in promoting security culture and education in the Romanian society of today. The first premise imputed is that the ongoing crisis produced by the pandemic weakens the democratic structure of the society. Being a low-trust society, a vice inherited from the communist era, Romanian citizens tend to be skeptical about the decisions taken by their elected politicians and therefore diminish or exclude serious threats to national and human security. That behavior represents an obstacle to the well-functioning of the state and the promotion of the National Defense Strategy 2020-2024. A strong security culture would imply automatically a tighter relation between security services and the Romanian citizens, leading in the end to an overall better status quo.
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The Middle East is experiencing a new era involving a cold war between the theocratic Shi’i state of Iran and its rival Saudi Arabia, a theocratic Sunni state, both considering themselves the leader of the Muslim world. These countries have been rivals for decades, and the consequences of this rivalry have been shaping the Middle East since 2011. This research intends to review the main issues over the last four decades involved in the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia. By examining the main issues involved in this rivalry, the research attempts to discover whether the animosity between Tehran and Riyadh following the Arab Spring is based on both sides’ effort to strengthen their proxies by using the Arab Spring’s flames. The research suggests a new conceptualization of how religion – Sunna and Shi’a – represents the historical clash on the question of who should have, must have, and who has the historical right to lead the Islamic world. This clash originated mainly from one focal base, Islam, yet it represents a separation between ‘theo’ – the Islamic religion, and ‘civilio’ – ethnic rivalry, or Arab vs. Persian culture. The objective of the study is to offer a practical solution to enable the two rivals to coexist for the region’s greater good, even if they cannot fully resolve their rivalry.
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Odpowiedź na zadane w ankiecie pytania muszę poprzedzić wstępnymi zastrzeżeniami. Po pierwsze, nie posiadam kompetencji, by stawiać diagnozę dotyczącą polskiej historiografii dziejów starożytnych czy Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów. Będę się więc koncentrował na tym, do czego, jak sądzę, mam legitymację — historii II wojny światowej i okresu powojennego. Po drugie, pewien kłopot sprawiają mi przyjęte ramy chronologiczne. Zakładają one, że przemiany systemowe 1989 r. oznaczały też przełom w polskiej historiografii.
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The peaceful revolutions of 1989 created a new Europe. This Europe is threatened to be lost today – 30 years later. Within the European continent national intolerance and the use of violence are part of everyday life. Politics is becoming more and more intransparent. Are there chances for change? Anyone who subscribes to the values of the Enlightenment is always at the beginning.
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This study analyses relations in the triangle Poland–Russia–Ukraine since 2004, bringing an insightful perspective to the realist concept of competition in international relations. For the last sixteen years, despite their unequal power, Poland and Russia have competed in Ukraine. This competition involves not only a fight for influence (quite limited in the case of Poland), but also in respect of the political and economic model that is to be implemented in Ukraine and its international identity. Poland wants Ukraine to become “European”: stable, democratic, and with a free market economy, to secure the eastern border of Poland, and to limit Ukraine’s dependence on Russia. This policy is executed both through bilateral cooperation and the Euro-Atlantic institutions, especially the European Union (EU). Russia, on the other hand, wants Ukraine to keep its post-Soviet identity. An authoritarian and corrupted Ukraine, remaining culturally a part of the “Russian world,” is perceived as guaranteeing Russian interests there, in particular in the context of the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance and EU towards the East. For this reason, Russia aims at impeding the development of Polish–Ukrainian cooperation. Until 2014 Russia was largely successful in realizing its agenda thanks to the multiple channels of dependence existing between it and Ukraine. However, since the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, the latter has engaged in a clearly discernible, though uncertain, path to Europeanization, which may favor the implementation of the Polish scenario for Ukraine.
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This article explores the role played by the 1940 Katyń massacre in structuring foreign relations between post-communist Poland and Russia. In so doing, it offers a theoretical model through which to understand the combative politics over history that have burgeoned in Eastern and Central Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Tracing how political discourse over the massacre has evolved from the late 1980s to the present, it examines the impact of exogenous influences and changing geopolitical realities on how this event is recalled within these two states, which exhibit markedly different relationships to their shared past. Questions of regime type, relative standing within the region, and how—as well as by whom—interstate discourse over contentious historical events is initiated are all central to the model of dispute origination developed herein, as is the presence of various institutional factors, chief among them membership in the supranational European Union (EU). A shadow study of Polish–Ukrainian relations concerning history, focusing on the mass killing of ethnic Poles that took place in Volhynia and eastern Galicia in the period 1943–1945, is also undertaken in order to illuminate the significant differences in how the past has been politically activated in relations between the respective post-Soviet dyads of Poland–Russia and Poland–Ukraine.
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The purpose of this article is to describe the processes that lead to the involvement of young people in terrorist activities undertaken by international jihadi organizations. The main research question was what kind of group and individual mechanisms pushed young people towards terrorism. A detailed research was aimed at addressing the following issues: 1) how do the theoretical models of radicalization, so far developed by social science, apply to explaining the current mobilization of fighters in Syria and Iraq?, 2) how – in the light of available knowledge – can the Islamist radicalization of young people from the Northern Caucasus be explained? The author applied the critical literature review method, as well as general methods, such as analysis, deduction and synthesis. The review of modern conceptions of radicalization allowed to formulate a thesis that this phenomenon could be explained with the “3P” Model, calling attention to push, pull, and personal factors. Whereas the analysis of the situation in the Northern Caucasus showed that most important in the last phase before making the decision to join a terrorist group are the pull factors: the influence of the closest social circle, the influence of the so-called radicalization vehicles, group dynamics and recruitment activities conducted by terrorist organizations.
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In the international environment, the importance of non-military security issues such as global health, migration, and natural disasters is growing. Therefore, the subject of research in this article is the tasks of the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), which is NATO's main crisis management tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the research was to identify those EADRCC activities that have contributed to improving NATO's response to the pandemic. The article mainly uses the method of critical analysis (reports, documents, literature on the subject, scientific articles, press materials) and historical analysis. Several research questions were answered. 1) What role can the EADRCC play in the face of new threats to NATO? 2) What is the significance, role, and scope of crisis management in the functioning of NATO? 3) What steps should the North Atlantic Alliance undertake to improve the use of the EADRCC's potential in crisis situations? The results of the research presented in the article indicate that the exchange of information, coordination of tasks, as well as solidarity and distribution of aid between NATO member and partner countries improved the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conclusion is that NATO should develop its capabilities and crisis management instruments, including the EADRCC; the need to build resilience to non-military threats in allies' military and civil spheres was also pointed out.
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The nature of the EU's cybersecurity policy has been changed as a result of the evolution of the catalog of present-day threats. Hence, the European Union's activity in the cybersecurity area in recent years has begun to extend beyond strictly business and economic aspects to include the defense sphere as well. The EU institutions engaged in building safe cyberspace, both within the European area and the global cooperation on cybersecurity. The subject matter of research is the current EU cyber security policy - its determinants and nature. The author aimed to explain the reasons for the engagement of EU institutions in cybersecurity policy during the last five years: the Union's authority in the cybersecurity domain, the development of the digital market and its impact on the Union's low-carbon economy, and the Union's aspirations to broaden the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy by incorporating cyber defence aspect. The second goal of the article was to describe the shape of the EU cybersecurity policy. The study examined the EU's ability to create a cyber policy after the Lisbon Treaty, EU economic growth priorities in relation to safe cyberspace, the connection between cybersecurity aspects and the so-called European Green Deal, and cyber defence issues under the Common Security and Defence Policy. To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the author used mainly qualitative methods: legal analysis, process tracking method and decision-making method.
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Culture and heritage preservation in the context of military missions in the education of officers of allied forces is a topic dating back to antiquity. At the same time, in connection primarily with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, interest in this issue has increased at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The importance of knowing the enemy's culture to achieve success in military operations is emphasized in strategic studies. To meet the new challenges, the U.S. Army created the so-called Human Terrain System, which relied on the cooperation of cultural anthropologists with the military. The article aims to characterize the current state of research on cultural competence in the military and systematize the subject based on Polish studies in security sciences. There appears the concept of cultural competence, shaped on the psychological ground, denoting problems with the adaptation of war veterans to the civilian environment, reflecting the issue of modern armed conflicts and the associated contact of different cultures. The research for this article was based primarily on the analysis of the literature on the subject with the help of a statistical review. This allowed the author to develop systematics and show the direction of implementing research results to the practice and military organization; to show the changes in the researched subject at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries with emphasizing the differences between Western and Polish science, revealing the fragmentary nature and causal character of the latter. On the other hand, regardless of the Polish or Western science, there is a noticeable lack of research and studies with a practical dimension in building programs in cultural competence. The discussed publications do not exhaust the topic of cultural competence. One can even say that the scope of meanings and competencies is still being built.
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Review of: Wojciech Wichert - Ostpreußens Kriegsbeute. Der Regierungsbezirk Zichenau 1939–1945. Hrsg. von Christhardt Henschel. (Einzelveröffentlichungen des Deutschen Historischen Instituts Warschau, Bd. 42.) 416 S., 22 Ill., Kt. ISBN 978-3-944870-75-5. (€ 58,–.)
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The paper analyzes the migration processes that have taken place and are still taking place in Poland as a factor that can positively influence the perception of Poland in the world. Poland is an example of a country that very quickly changed its status from an emigration state to an immigration one. This is evidenced by the positive migration balance and the issuance of the largest number of temporary residence permits in the European Union. The status of an immigration state was confirmed by the influx of war refugees from Ukraine and numerous decisions to stay in Poland for a long time and permanently, as well as an attempt to open a new migration pathway running through the Polish-Belarusian border. It should be assumed that with appropriate conduct of foreign policy, this new situation in Poland can strengthen its international position and perception. At the same time, there are also risks associated with it. If there is a failure to respond properly and in accordance with the law and the rules of democratic states to the migration challenges, it could result in the entrenchment of negative opinions about Poland from the migration perspective that emerged during the migration crisis of 2015–2016.
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This paper examines the opportunities for international disinformation resulting from the technological development under the Fourth Industrial Revolution and from its social implications. It assumes these phenomena have brought new instruments and opportunities for states to make use of disinformation on an unprecedented scale which has been enabled by the features of the contemporary information environment based mostly on Internet and social media. As a result disinformation has become arguably easier, more efficient and, therefore, more threatening than ever before. At the beginning the paper explores the aforementioned features and outlines which disinformation strategies can be used on a large scale in such circumstances. It identifies subsequently states making use of the new disinformation toolkit in their foreign policies as well as their main motivations and enablers. The final section presents the countermeasures to disinformation that could be undertaken and assesses the limits of their application.
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The article analyzes the influence of fragile states on the contemporary strategy of international security. The above inquiry aims to depict the fundamental factors responsible for the threats that destabilized fragile states pose to modern global security systems. Therefore, primary research questions concern issues responsible for various forms of antagonisms undermining the socio–political situation of fragile states. To achieve the above research goal, however, the author exposes the complex specificity of fragile states in the context of the multidimensional dynamics of recent geopolitical changes. Analyzing the conceptualization process of these issues reveals attempts to use them instrumentally. In addition, the presented discourse discloses an evident ambiguity, semantic ambivalence, multi-faceted nature, and even inconsistency of the fragile state concept, especially in the context of the discussed aspects. It is why the above issues are considered the most complex and “wicked” problems of the modern world, particularly affecting the peripheral areas of the Third World. Henceforth, diagnosing the impact of the discussed factors may help shape a more effective international security strategy, as well as create better support programs enabling effective resolution of the multiple problems affecting fragile states. Moreover, the answer to such questions is significant in the context of contemporary global political changes, which, combined with the concepts of the so-called “political correctness”, are becoming a severe challenge for the entire international security agenda.
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The article grouped political parties into two groups – supporters and opponents of the creation of this type of infrastructure. Supporters of the terminal’s construction (PiS, LPR, PO, Self-Defence) pointed to the need to comprehensively ensure Poland's energy security, including through the construction of an LNG terminal. At the same time, opponents (PSL and SLD) questioned the economic aspect of building the terminal.Polish political parties assessed Poland's dependence on natural gas supplies from the Russian Federation in different ways. Politicians of both right-wing, center, and left-wing parties proposed various solutions aimed at diversifying the sources and directions of natural gas supplies to Poland. Therefore, the aim of the article was to analyze the political thought of Polish political parties in constructing a regasification terminal on the Baltic Sea in the years 2001-2011 (this type of infrastructure was commissioned in 2015). The subject covers political thought, while in the substantive sense, the work concerns the views of representatives of individual political parties on natural gas imports to Poland. In the paper, as the research techniques, the source analysis, content analysis, and comparative analysis methods were used.
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