Issue 11:3

Miloš Balabán

From the End of History to the Post-American World: Global Politics, Economy and Security at the Turn of the Epoch

The author analyses a number of major works by American scholars (Fukuyama, Huntington, Zakaria, Nye, Haass, Mearsheimer, Brzezinski, Jentleson, Wright, Ikenberry, Jones) that examine the global power shifts, especially with regard to the changing position and role of the US as the leading Western power. The United States is coming to terms with the end of the unipolar moment and adapting to new political, economic and security realities ushered in by the rise of non-Western powers. The above…

Issue 11:3

Federico Donelli

Features, Aims and Limits of Turkey’s Humanitarian Diplomacy

Several scholars agree that Turkey applied humanitarian diplomacy as part of its global opening, a consequence of which is that it became a medium global player. However, it is still not clear – and thus still under research – what does Turkey’s experience teach us regarding humanitarian diplomacy? For the literature what is unique in Turkey’s application? In order to provide an empirically backed response to such research questions, this paper initially studies What Turkey did with…

Issue 11:3

Michal Prokop

The Alawites and the Labyrinthine Routes of Peace in Syria

For the past six years, Syria has been trapped in a deep political turmoil, which has had a grave impact on peace and stability in the Middle East. Amid the rising atrocities committed on the Syrian population by the Syrian government, the rebels and the Islamic state, the Russian Federation decided in September 2015 to provide a military solution while supporting one side of the conflict. The increased use of force in Syria by foreign powers like the US, the UK, France and Turkey as well as…

Issue 11:3

Ksenia Muratshina

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and post-Soviet Central Asia: New Multilateral Bank Formation in the Context of China’s Economic Interaction with post-Soviet Central Asian Countries

This paper analyses what consequences the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) formation brings to partnerships between the People’s Republic of China and the post-Soviet states of Central Asia—the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Given that Beijing initiated this new multilateral bank’s formation and controls its activity to a great extent, the AIIB’s concept and activity are examined in the context of China’s global and regional objectives.…

Issue 11:3

Iva Sojková

The Beijing Consensus: Characteristics of China’s Official Development Finance in Ghana, 2000–2013

Chinese development financial flows provided to African recipients have gained a lot of attention for their volume and nature representing an alternative approach to development. It is the aim of the article to examine the observance of principles of the Chinese development model, the Beijing Consensus, through Official Development Finance (ODF) delivered to Ghana between 2000 and 2013. Due to the lack of information published on development finance by Chinese government, the author uses…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

Rein in Qatar. Gulf unity is at stake

Analysts of the Arab Gulf region have, for the past week or so, been obsessing over the deterioration of relations within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). And for good reason. Qatar stands accused of pursuing some very damaging policies—policies that undermine GCC international projects, generate suspicion of the Arab Gulf internationally and are greeted with outright hostility in other parts of the Arab world. Consider that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and…

Issue 11:2

Miron Lakomy

Polish-Ukrainian Relations, Euromaidan and the Donbass Conflict: The Challenges for Warsaw

This article contributes to the discussion about the multidimensional consequences of the crisis and conflict in Ukraine. It focuses on the rarely discussed subject of the implications of the events in this country since 2013 for Polish-Ukrainian relations from Warsaw's perspective. This article has three major goals: firstly, to present the historical determinants influencing contemporary Polish-Ukrainian relations; secondly, to characterize the reaction of Poland to the events in Ukraine…

Issue 11:2

Aneta Hlavsová

Involved in The Middle East – George W. Bush versus Barack Obama

This article evaluates the different foreign policy approaches of the United States Administration under the 43rd and 44th presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, towards the Middle East. They each projected a completely different style of conflict resolution strategy. While George Bush is known as “war president”, Obama utilised a Wilsonian approach in his foreign policy attitudes, especially towards the countries of the Middle East. While in office, Obama managed to overcome the…

Issue 11:2

Lucie Švejdová

Iran’s Regional Ambitions: The Rising Power of Azerbaijan’s Neighbour

Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are complex and filled with escalating tensions, demographic and territorial challenges, as well as mutually beneficial cooperation. With economic sanctions lifted (at the time of this writing) as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran has embarked on a path towards economic recovery, a window of opportunity for reaching the status of regional power is opening. Whether the future scenario of post-sanctions Iran generates…

Issue 11:2

Jiří Jelínek

International Terrorism - Current Challenges and Legal Means of Protection in the Czech Republic

The article analyses two current issues relating to the contemporary international terrorism. Firstly, it is the ingrowth or merging of international terrorism with organised crime, as a criminological or sociological problem. Secondly, it is the threat posed by the growing number of persons referred to as “foreign terrorist fighters,” i.e. persons leaving the countries of their origin and travelling to the world conflict areas with the intent to support and promote terrorist criminal offences,…

Issue 11:2

Mats Braun, Adisa Avdic, Anna Gromilova and Gabriela Ozel Volfova

The EU’s Normative Impact on its Neighbourhood

The paper examines the relevance of Ian Manners’ ‘normative power Europe’ concept and argues that the concept benefits from its closer integration into the general norm diffusion literature in international relations. The paper emphasises that the European Union’s capability of having an impact on what is considered to be the normal thing to do in states closest to its borders is linked to how the EU itself and the norms that it promotes are perceived in these countries. The European Union,…

2018 - Volume 12, Issue 2

American Foreign Policy Strategies Toward the Asia-Pacific:…

American foreign policy has vacillated between Asia and Europe for over a century.  During World War I, the involvement was entirely in Europe, and President Wilson’s focus in his Fourteen Points was on incorporation of East and Central Europe into a democratic framework.  There was a twin focus on…

The Problem of Reform of the UN Security Council Permanent…

It is reviewed activities of the United Nations Security Council as a guarantor of international peace and security with powers to influence infringers of the international law. It is stated that at the beginning of the 21st century, the UN Security Council was powerless to perform its functions…

PKK’s Friends and Foes in the Middle East since 1999

This article illustrates the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) relationship with regional actors since 1999. The PKK maintains relations with Iran, Syria, Russia, Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the US. On the other hand, the PKK has strained relations with Turkey, the Kurdistan…

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office as a New Form of…

This article will discuss Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. This project is a significant demonstration of the unification of European criminal law and the redirection from the traditional judicial cooperation among…

Lessons from Occupy Diraz: The Role of Velayati Twelver Activism…

A social movement exists in space. The relation between a social movement and space offers unique perspective into that social movement itself. Several dimensions of that relation can be observed in Occupy Diraz. It occupied a space that symbolised the movement's grievances; by occupying a space…

Contextualising the Fulani-Herdsmen Conflict in Nigeria

This article examines President Muhammadu Buhari's role in the long-running conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria. Having attained the rank of fourth-deadliest terrorist group in the world, the attacks of Fulani herdsmen on Nigerian farmers and vice versa are gaining international…