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ARTICULI
ARTICULI
OLENA PODVORNA, TARAS ZHOVTENKO, NATO Arctic Policy in Statu Nascendi (pp. 163-186)
Abstract
Having played a substantial role in the bipolar period, the Arctic has found itself at the “backyard” of international politics after the Cold War. During the last decade of the XXth century, the Arctic was the priority issue only for the littoral states. The Russian expedition to the North Pole in the so-called “last scramble” for energy resources drew regional interest of a wide range of international actors, including NATO. The Alliance faced a serious task of elaborating its policy in the Arctic to meet its member-states’ and associated partners’ modern-day reality expectations. NATO started close cooperation with Norway trying to shape a policy that could bring an added value to the region in terms of positive security thinking, largely dominating European agenda after the Cold War. However, a rapid change of the security situation since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has shifted the Alliance’s agenda towards the continent and its relations with Moscow raising concerns about the revival of the traditional bipolar thinking about the security and prospective remilitarization of the Arctic. It is vital for the Alliance to shape its policy, both strategically and tactically, to face those security challenges and guarantee peace and stability in the Arctic.
Keywords: NATO, the Arctic, security, collective defense, Russian Federation.
OLENA PODVORNA, Associate Professor, Department of Country Studies, Faculty of International Relations, National University of Ostroh Academy, olena.podvorna@oa.edu.ua
TARAS ZHOVTENKO, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and National Security, Faculty of Political Studies and Information Management, National University of Ostroh Academy, taras.zhovtenko@oa.edu.ua
Abstract
This article explains the possible drivers behind the establishment of the Pacific Alliance (PA) in South America focusing on foreign economic policies and explaining the extent of policy convergence as a possible factor. In so doing, it examines on what basis these countries try to engage collectively with key Asian partners. A brief historical explanation might allow us to verify how non-legal elements have been politically and successfully networked with perfect timing. Policy convergence over strategies such as internationalization and negotiation was a milestone in the creation of the PA itself, presidentially led by Chile, Colombia and Peru. However, Chile and Peru share a pro-Pacific profile in economic and political terms, while Colombia’s elites have traditionally ignored the Pacific Coast. These differences not necessarily impede on the articulation of a collective cooperation strategy with Asia-Pacific, but it might slow down the Chilean eagerness to reach prompt accords with Asian partners. This article suggests that taking non-legal factors into consideration might allow a wider understanding of the reasons behind economic alliances’ formation. In so doing, International Political Economy’ theoretical richness might fill the gap that International Economy Law has to explain such phenomena.
Keywords: Pacific Alliance, South America, Asia-Pacific, China, policy convergence, internationalization strategies.
ANGELICA GUERRA-BARON, PhD candidate, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, aguerrab@pucp.pe
Abstract
This article examines the movement “No to Khudoni Hydropower Plant,” as an example of the longest and continuous civic movement in Georgia. Within the theoretical framework of structural functionalism, it claims that structural changes happening in Georgia’s political system during the last 30 years have caused this movement. The opening of a “window of possibilities” during Perestroika and Glasnost made it possible to start the discussion on the sustainability of the project, which later caused the updating of the project and then, structural changes in 2003, and the strengthening of the civil society made it possible to resume this social movement. This paper aims to analyze the various actors, which are involved in the discussions as opponents or proponents of the Khudoni HPP construction and their arguments are the same despite the period of 30 years; government and investors are the main proponents of the construction while the academia and civil society are opposing it through various types of strategies. The data collected in the field research allows this article to show how the resistance has managed to survive for more than three decades; what are the arguments of a great number of agents involved with the resistance movement and how its resources are amassed and followers recruited and what makes the movement so unique.
Keywords: Georgia, civil activism, structural changes, social movement.
SALOME DUNDUA, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, salome.dundua@tsu.ge
TAMAR KARAIA, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, tamar.karaia@tsu.ge
Abstract
African democracy is still evolving since it began to take root over twenty years ago. There have been various forms of party fission and fusion in the quest for the acquisition of state power. Evidence suggests that party merger in Africa is driven by an entirely different set of logic from mainstream rationalizations that underpin mergers in developed democracies. A major drawback of merger politics in Africa is the lacuna of ideological barrenness, which drives the continued penchant of the political elite to switch parties based on self-aggrandizing permutations. This paper offers insights into the party system and the underpinning motivation for mergers in African politics, namely, that they are essentially motivated by self-interest and driven by rational political calculations aimed at the capture of state power to further prebendal intentions. Using Nigeria as a case study, this paper evaluates the party system and provides raisons d’être for existing mergers. It further contends that unless ideology is brought to the front seat of party formation and organization, merger politics will remain a shifting ground of ad hocism designed for the capture of state power, and for the advancement of narrow politico-economic interests of select political elites.
Keywords: Opposition politics, ideology, party merger, democracy, party switching, Nigeria, Africa.
AGAPTUS NWOZOR, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Landmark University, Nigeria, nwozor.agaptus@lmu.edu.ng
JACOB AUDU, Senior Lecturer, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, ojigod@gmail.com
MODUPE B. AKE, Lecturer, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Landmark University, Nigeria, ake.modupe@lmu.edu.ng
JOHN S. OLANREWAJU, Lecturer, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Landmark University, Nigeria, olanrewaju.john@lmu.edu.ng
OLUWASEUN OGUNDELE, Postgraduate Candidate, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Landmark University, Nigeria, oluwaseun.ogundele@lmu.edu.ng
Abstract
Since the fall of the USSR, the development of the integration process has become a foreign policy priority of the former Soviet territory. However, Moscow has failed to achieve this goal: no established structure could lead to significant integration. This research provides a historical review of the Eurasian economic integration. Employing an analysis of the international agreements and treaties that were behind the activities of the Eurasian integration unions, we reveal the specific features of economic integration communities’ evolution in the post-Soviet territory within the period from the Soviet Union collapse to the present date and assess their true fails and gains. The findings reveal that the Eurasian integration appears to have evolved mostly “on paper” in the form of various documents but has had no practical implementation. Its development was characterized by permanent cycles, which member countries attempted to overcome, establishing new integration entities. However, their interest gradually faded, making EAEU feel like the last attempt to implement a Eurasian integration process.
Keywords: the Post-Soviet Space, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russian Foreign Policy.
KONSTANTIN YEVGENYEVICH MESHCHERYAKOV, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations in the Post-Soviet Space, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, st003383@spbu.ru
VLADIMIR GERMANOVICH BURKOV, Professor, Department of International Relations in the Post-Soviet Space, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, v.burkov@spbu.ru
RUSLAN GABDRASHITOVICH SHAMGUNOV, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations in the Post-Soviet Space, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, r.shamgunov@spbu.ru
LYUBOV ALEKSEEVNA BERDEGULOVA, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Law and Process, Bashkir State University, Russia, berdegulova-lyub@mail.ru
MILANA VLADIMIROVNA RAGULINA, Principal Research Associate, Laboratory of geo-resources science and political geography, Sochava Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Professor, Department of Geography, Life Safety and Methods of the Pedagogical Institute, Irkutsk State University, Russia, milanara@yandex.ru
JOE HOOVER, Reconstructing Human Rights: A Pragmatist and Pluralist Inquiry in Global Ethics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016 (ALICE CHEMPF, University of Bucharest) (pp. 285-288)
IAN BREMMER, Us vs Them: The failure of Globalism, New York, Portfolio/Penguin, 2018 (LETIȚIA ROMAN, University of Bucharest) (pp. 288-292)
MARK BASSIN AND GONZALO POZO (EDS.), The politics of Eurasianism Identity, Popular Culture and Russia’s Foreign Policy, London, Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017 (ROBERT ȚICALĂU, Universitatea din București) (pp. 292-297)
ANDREA CASSANI AND LUCA TOMINI, Autocratization in post-Cold War Political Regimes, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (GEORGIAN FORCOȘ, Universitatea din București) (pp. 297-302)
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