Studij obrane i zaštite na Fakultetu političkih znanosti

Author(s): Vlatko Cvrtila / Language(s): Croatian Publication Year: 0

Prije 45 godina, točnije 1. studenoga 1962, počela je sveučilišna nastava na Fakultetu političkih nauka u Zagrebu.1 Godine 1971. na istom Fakultetu osnovan je dvogodišnji Studij novinarstva koji je ubrzo postao četverogodišnji. Nekoliko godina kasnije, 1975, Studiju politologije i Studiju novinarstva “pridružio” se i treći studij na Fakultetu političkih nauka: Studij općenarodne obrane i društvene samozaštite (skraćenica: ONO i DSZ). Istodobno su slični studiji osnovani na još četiri sveučilišta u tadašnjoj Jugoslaviji: u Skopju, Beogradu, Sarajevu i Ljubljani. U Makedoniji je studij organiziran u sklopu Filozofskog fakulteta (jer tamo nije postojao Fakultet političkih znanosti), u Sarajevu i Zagrebu na Fakultetu političkih nauka kao poseban studij, a u Ljubljani unutar Fakultete za družbene vede. Samo je u Beogradu osnovan poseban Fakultet obrane i zaštite, što je bila posljedica velikog utjecaja vojne elite u glavnom gradu socijalističke Jugoslavije.

Evantropia and Dysantropia

Author(s): Lucas E. Misseri / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

CHINA VERSUS THE US IN THE MIDDLE EAST: COOPERATION OR COMPETITION?

Author(s): Cristina-Florentina Dincă / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Over the last years, People’s Republic of China (PRC) has surpassed the United States of America (U.S.) as the world’s leading energy consumer and importer of oil.China’s relations with the Middle East become an important issue with global implications.This paper examines China’s interests in and its strategy towards the Middle East and what are the consequences for the U.S.. The aim is to find out to what extend China’s expanding presence in the Middle East poses a threat to the US security partnerships with Arab countries and the US military posture in the region. Even if China influence in the region has largely been economic, growing trade and investment also gives Beijing increased geopolitical stature. To achieve the intended purpose, the research framework will consist on a qualitative analysis based on case study method.

Countering Subversion Online: What Role for Public Policy?

Author(s): Edward Christie / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This final chapter aims to offer a synthesis of the main vulnerabilities that liberal democracies contend with, as they encounter contemporary forms of political subversion, and to propose a set of policy principles to guide ongoing reflections on how to best respond to that challenge. Four areas of vulnerability are identified, namely individualized political messaging; group dynamics and political polarization; platform algorithms and self-radicalization; and falsehood dissemination dynamics. In discussing each of these areas, insights are drawn from both very recent and more established academic research, at the crossroads of psychology, social psychology, communication studies, and political science. This leads to framing elements for the formulation of proposed policy principles, followed by examples of recent measures in selected countries.

Polityka zagraniczna Polski w setną rocznicę niepodległości

Author(s): Agnieszka Bieńczyk-Missala / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article discusses Poland’s foreign policy in 2017/2018. The governmentcontinued the implementation of main foreign policy plans adopted after the Lawand Justice party came to power. It showed scepticism towards further deepeningof European integration, but it did not present any official proposals of EU reforms.Poland’s position in the EU was weakened by the rule of law control mechanisminitiated by the European Commission. Bilateral relations between Poland andWestern European countries were limited. There was no breakthrough in the East,in relations with Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Opportunities for development ofcooperation within the Visegrad Group, the Three Sees and the Nine of Bucharest were explored. As in the past, its security policy was determined by the fear ofRussia’s policy. It was focused on NATO and cooperation with the United States.Postulates of permanent presence of American soldiers in Poland were formulated.The government has not used the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence toorganize international celebrations.

Wybiórczy realizm na sterydach. Power politics à la Donald Trump

Author(s): Tomasz Pugacewicz / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The aim of the paper is to determine whether Donald Trump’s foreign policyemploys a power politics perspective. The proposed hypothesis states that theprimary goal of President Trump’s foreign policy is a great powers competition.The paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, research design is presented. Secondly,empirical analysis of four selected issues is conducted: (1) Donald Trump’s politicalbeliefs; (2) released US strategic documents; (3) institutional change in the field offoreign policy making; and (4) the shape of defence budget. In the final part, thehypothesis is confirmed at the level of President Trump’s political beliefs (fully) andthe US strategic documents (partly), however, at the level of institutional change andthe defence budget shape it is hard to find unambiguous conclusions. As a result, thepower politics approach declared by the US President – considered by some expertsas realism on steroids – is, in fact, implemented only selectively. The research strategyused is a case study. The method of data acquisition is qualitative text analysis.

Power politics w polityce zagranicznej Turcji po 2011 r.

Author(s): Adam Szymański,Adam Szymański / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The aim of this article is to examine, from the perspective of power politics,Turkey’s foreign policy after the so called Arab Spring, particularly in the last fewyears (2015–2019). The author answers the following questions: Has power politicsin Turkey’s foreign policy intensified? If so, how does it manifest and how is it different from the policy of the first decade of the 21st century? Is it justified toclaim that Turkish foreign policy has turned back to the 1990s model? What are thereasons for the current change in the foreign policy of Turkey? The text providesarguments that in the last few years there have been elements of power politics inTurkish foreign policy, which have been the result of adaptation, i.e. keeping theparadigm and main directions of the policy unchanged while making more frequentuse of hard power tools in relation to soft power measures which are still applied.The current incarnation of Turkey’s foreign policy is a reaction to specific externaland domestic determinants, similar to those in the 1990s (though not the same) andleading to re-securitization of Turkish policy as well as to attempts to enhance itsweakened regional position.

Ujęzykowienie sacrum i jego ewolucja w myśli Jürgena Habermasa

Author(s): Kamil Aksiuto / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The ‘linguistification of the sacred’ belongs to the most overlooked concepts in the whole body of theory by Jürgen Habermas. First introduced in his seminal work Theory of Communicative Action, it reappears in Habermas’s later writings, especially after the so-called ‘post-secular turn’ in his thought. The article aims to trace this concept’s development and shed some light on the shifting functions it seems to perform in Habermas’s theorising. Furthermore, it juxtaposes Habermas’s later understanding of ‘linguistification of the sacred’ with the account of religion and the sacred developed by Polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski.

Mitologia amerykańskiej demokracji – symboliczny fundament więzi społeczno-politycznych w Stanach Zjednoczonych

Author(s): Bohdan M. Szklarski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

American political mythology is viewed here from a functional perspective – as one of the elements legitimising the political system. In compound societies, the primary function of political mythology and accompanying political rituals, as components of symbolic politics, is to contribute to constructing the political community. The power of political mythology stems from the human preponderance to engage in magical thinking as a product of certain socio-economic circumstances. The text presents a typology of political myths in relation to the character of democracy, shows their relevance to critical political institutions and practices, and explains the role they play in legitimising the American political system.

Eneasz w Ameryce

Author(s): Marcin Gajek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The figure of a ‘City upon a Hill’ (New Jerusalem) occupies a distinctive position in the system of symbolic images characterising the American republic. It provides a crucial interpretative key for the American political project. The vast literature on this subject leads many scholars to a misperception: they tend to project the Puritan mindset, typical for New England, upon the entire English colonisation in America and, while doing so, overlook the diversity of the American political tradition as well as the fundamental role played by regions in shaping a complex identity of the burgeoning American society. This paper presents an alternative and lesser-known concept of America as a New Troy and captain John Smith as an American Aeneas, which emerged in the Southern colonies soon after the establishment of Jamestown. The figure of New Troy contains a semantic field which implicates the interpretation of American political tradition in the alternative or even antithetic terms to that of New Jerusalem. The teleocratic, highly moralistic and, according to some scholars, even gnostic concept of the ‘republic of saints’ was contrasted by Southerners with the conservative vision of a nomocratic political order, sanctioned by tradition and dedicated to the preservation of the status quo. This paper argues that by discussing and contrasting both visions, we can better understand the cultural roots of specific fundamental differences in the mindsets of Americans living in different regions of the United States, both from a historical and contemporary perspective.

Język Lewiatana

Author(s): Nina Gładziuk / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The figure of Leviathan makes the title of the most important political treatise written by Thomas Hobbes. Why then this figure seems to be absent in the famous introductory picture to the philosopher’s work? This essay aims to extricate various meanings of Leviathan hidden in the right flank of this book’s frontispiece.

Polityka a metafora

Author(s): Zbigniew Stawrowski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The question of a rational attitude to the world of politics has been with us since the ancient beginnings of philosophy and makes us reflect today. Is the philosopher’s view of the political reality more penetrating, and is his judgment more balanced than the views of ordinary people? It is worth looking at one of the first answers to this question – a metaphorical answer which, due to the complex and labile nature of the political matter, not so much solves the issue but instead gives food for thought and invites thinking. Starting from the image of the cave outlined by Plato in Book 7 of his Politeia, this text tries to shed some light on the role and fate of the philosopher engaged in political thinking.

Wolność akademicka a pragnienie prawdy

Author(s): Piotr Mazurkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The paper undertakes the problem of the relationship between academic freedom and the pursuit of cognition of truth. The question of the freedom of science appears for the first time in the writings of Aristotle, who associates the freedom of cognition with its ‘non-utility’, i.e. the absence of goals that treat cognition instrumentally, and with the freedom of the researcher from the influence of non-scientific factors (e.g. pressure of power, economic interests). In Aristotle’s opinion, practical and productive sciences are more necessary but less worthy. In Plato’s understanding, the freedom of science is closely related to the freedom from the obligation to deal with politics. The author analyses to what extent these concepts of academic freedom are valid and realised today. This is done in relation to the way the four classical faculties function and the ‘fifth faculty’, i.e. the natural sciences. The current relationship between science and politics is also examined in more detail.

Troubled Waters: the Taiwan Issue since the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis

Author(s): Anna Voloshina / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Over the last seventy years the Taiwan Strait has been widely seen as a place where the next major conflict between the great powers could start. The last time when Asia found itself on the brink of war over the future of the island nation was the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1995–1996. In this article, the author examines the crisis background, events and consequences and suggests that the confrontation marked the emergence of a new status quo in the strait area, the one of a structural deadlock. This paper provides an analysis of the three subsequent periods (2000–2008, 2008–2016 and since 2016 until the present) in the evolution of that status quo. The author argues that in the recent years the situation in the Taiwan Strait has been shifting towards increased turbulence. The study identifies the major factors that are eroding the “pillars” of the status quo and, thus, have a destabilizing effect on the relations between Beijing, Washington and Taipei. As such factors are of a structural nature the author concludes that the room for maneuver for each side of the triangle is becoming increasingly narrow. It enhances the risk of a structural deadlock escalating into an armed conflict.

China, Central Asia and a Changing Global Order

Author(s): Bart Dessein / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The following paper addresses the issue of presenting the historical significance of China’s cultural influence in the region of the contemporary Central Asian republics – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, and in the contemporary Autonomous Region Xinjiang. Using historical texts, the author analyses the place of the Central Asia issue in the thought and strategic plans of successive Chinese authorities. The author points to the importance of building, including metaphorically, the Great Wall and highlights the contemporary importance of developing economic and political relations between China and the countries of the region. The paper emphasizes that the Great Wall did not prevent cultural influences from the north entering China and was a ‘border,’ not a ‘limit,’ in the same way that also the Silk Roads that cut into China’s western borders were channels of intercultural exchange. The text concludes that in the contemporary period, the Central Asian region could and should become a region of intercultural exchange in a constantly changing global order.

Burmese Buddhist Idealism from U Thant to Aung San Suu Kyi. Two Case Studies of Myanmar’s Political Thought

Author(s): Michał Lubina / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi remains a puzzle. Not a long time ago a global democracy icon, she now faces harsh criticism for her actions in governance. Much has been written about her policies yet there is little attempt to trace the intellectual sources of her policymaking. This article will try to fill this gap by showing that important sources of Suu Kyi’s governing philosophy can be found in 1950s intellectual climate of Burma. Suu Kyi in her political thought follows the (completely forgotten now) tradition of Burmese Buddhist modernists of 1950s whose most famous representative was U Thant. Suu Kyi is quite like them in many regards including the inability to successfully govern a country.

Proliferation of RTAs in the World Economy as a Consequence of the Crisis within the WTO – the Case of Agreements between the EU and ASEAN Countries

Author(s): Elżbieta Majchrowska / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Proliferation of RTAs in the World Economy as a Consequence of the Crisis within the WTO – the Case of Agreements between the EU and ASEAN CountriesThe ever-expanding and progressive crisis in fulfilling its key roles by the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the main reason behind the proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) all over the world. The growing trend in this regard could also be observed in actions taken by the European Union. The EU’s current policy of diversification and intensification of trade relations involves mainly the conclusion of numerous Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). A clear tendency, in this context, is a special interest in markets of the Asia-Pacific region, owing to their enormous economic potential. Of particular note, in this context, are the bilateral agreements concluded with countries of the ASEAN group, which, as a whole, constitute EU’s third largest trading partner outside Europe. These agreements, leading towards restarting negotiations of the ambitious region-to-region FTA with ASEAN, are particularly significant to reinforcing EU’s position in this economically important area, also, in light of other crucial agreements concluded in the region, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Ensuring better access to the dynamic ASEAN market is a priority for the EU. This region is critical to European economic interests, which was emphasized in the trade and investment strategy for the EU – “Trade for All,” presented in 2015. In the face of the multilateral crisis within the WTO, the EU, as the most active participant of RTAs in the world economy, will, therefore, concentrate onimplementing its current policy and activities in this regard – negotiating RTAs. This solution, owing to its discriminatory nature, further complicates world trade, however, on the other hand, it grants the EU greater bargaining power. Changing this situation requires reforming the WTO and rebuilding the organization’s position in the world trade system.

Overlapping Regionalism in East Asia: A Critical Review on Mega-Free Trade Agreements

Author(s): Burcu Ermeydan / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Despite the existence of region-wide economic networks and the proliferation of regional cooperation processes in the 1990s and 2000s, East Asia is still one of the under-institutionalized regions in the world. In the absence of a single regional organization covering all regional states, the region is fragmented among regional organizations/groups, most of which geographically overlap due to multi-membership. In the literature on regionalism, this phenomenon has been recently conceptualized as “overlapping regionalism,” which has been observed worldwide. Indeed, East Asia constitutes a special example of overlapping regionalism with its current regional setting because of the high number of overlaps under regional organizations, initiatives, and agreements. Yet, the region has not been extensively examined in the emerging literature on overlapping regionalism. This paper aims to discuss overlapping regionalism in East Asia and its effects. It asks two central questions: why do regional states implement regional initiatives that geographically overlap, and how do overlapping regional initiatives affect regional states’ positions in the current setting of regional architecture in East Asia and vice versa? In order to answer these questions, it first proposes an analytical framework to examine overlapping regionalism. Later, it focuses on selected geographically overlapping free trade agreements like Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). It evaluates political and economic factors and determinants of the emergence of these overlapping regional initiatives within the East Asian context. East Asia constitutes a distinctive example in termsof overlapping regional initiatives. It argues that rivalry among the big powers of the region, hedging strategies of middle and small powers, and the looselyinstitutionalized structure of the regional governance are the primary reasons behind their emergence.

Contrived Citizenship in Olympic Competition: Politicisation of the Olympic Games – to Divide Instead of to Unite when Para-diplomacy is Abused

Author(s): David A. Jones / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

An Olympian Spirit is an ideal goal envisioned to bring outstanding athletes in many sports together in objective competition. Historical rules have been strict, some nations have skirted accepted regulations. Then more recently, multiple standards have been relaxed to the point where they seem to be non-existent or mandatory more on some than on others: both nations and athletes. This is para-diplomacy gone wild in the wrong direction. Examples are bountiful: changing of citizenship vicariously, representing countries without citizenship, testing positive for contraband substances then being allowed into competition, denial of a place in competition because the brand on a snowboard is not that of an Olympic “sponsor,” and the list goes on. Olympic training is gruelling. To allow an unqualified athlete to compete deprives a qualified athlete of an opportunity that can be life-changing. Same for fictional disqualification, medal stripping or reduction on pretext technicalities, raiding by some countries of athletes born and trained in other countries. Standards must be uniform, applicable to all competitors, enforced punctiliously by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Alternatively, right-thinking countries will consider withdrawing from the Olympics. Is the Olympic goal only to make money, to generate media contracts, to pander to sponsors? What sanctions are appropriate? If an athlete wins a medal under a “false flag,” should that award be transferred to her/his real country? When an athlete violates a material rule, should the team of athletes representing that athlete’s country be sanctioned? If fairness is to dominate, what is fair?

Parlamentoda Bir Köylü Kadinin Temsili: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin İlk Kadin Milletvekillerinden Hati Çirpan (Sati Kadin)’In Siyasi Yaşami ve Etkileri

Author(s): Ceren Avcil / Language(s): Turkish Publication Year: 0

This study examines the life and political career of Hatı Çırpan (Satı Kadın), one of the first female members of parliament in the Republic of Türkiye. The research utilizes published academic articles, books, theses, and archival documents pertaining to Çırpan’s life. Satı Hanım’s political journey serves as a significant example of the development of women’s political participation during the Republican era. The study emphasizes Çırpan’s unique position as the first female parliamentarian of rural origin, which is considered a crucial turning point in the process of changing traditional perspectives on women in Turkish Republic. In addition to her political career, the research also explores Çırpan’s views on gender roles and rural development. The study provides a detailed examination of the reforms implemented following the proclamation of the Republic to facilitate women’s participation in political life. In this context, important steps such as encouraging women’s participation in the public sphere, granting suffrage, and increasing educational opportunities are discussed. However, the study also draws attention to the fact that the current rate of women’s political representation is still not at the desired level. The research comprehensively analyzes the economic, social, cultural, and political factors affecting women’s political participation. Consequently, it emphasizes the need to reassess policies and strategies aimed at ensuring women’s full and equal participation. The study also discusses measures that should be taken to strengthen the status of women. In conclusion, this research examines the historical development of women’s political participation in Turkey through the life and political career of Satı Çırpan and evaluates the current situation. The study aims to contribute to the literature by offering recommendations for increasing women’s political representation.