Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer

Salami Tactics

Tensions in the Arab Gulf have experienced a sharp spike over the past months. Terrorist and proxy militia attacks, directed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, have targeted energy transmission infrastructure via the bombing of pipelines in Saudi Arabia, international oil tankers (belonging to Japan, Norway, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) in the UAE, while naval mines have damaged other tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia (re: Abha’s civilian airport)…

Cyber Security: An Introduction for Non-Technical Managers

Book Review

Gregorio Staglianò

Cyber Security: An Introduction for Non-Technical Managers

In his Cyber Security, Jeremy Swinfen Green provides some insights for ‘non - technical managers’, as the subtitle suggests. His intention is to map, after trying to give a holistic definition of the term, all the risks associated with the improper, malicious or incorrect use of technology, both for individuals and for companies. Understanding where the leak lies is critical in order to develop an effective strategy to address them, especially in a fully digitized world that puts a huge amount…

Thinking Like a Political Scientist

Book Review

Alec Lalonde

Thinking Like a Political Scientist

Christopher Howard, known chiefly for his contributions to the study of American politics with The Hidden Welfare State (1997) and The Welfare State Nobody Knows (2006), makes a pragmatic and unpretentious contribution to the already burgeoning literature on political methodology with Thinking Like a Political Scientist (hereafter TLPS).  Howard puts aside arcane statistical techniques and philosophical reflections in order to impart set vital methodological precepts that undergraduates should…

Issue 13:2

Al Chukwuma Okoli, Elias Chukwuemeka Ngwu

Borderlines, Natural Resources and Conflicts: Towards a Territorial Materialism of Boundary Disputes in East Africa

This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study posits that the ‘colonial causation’ narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis, does not wholly explain contemporary boundary/border disputes in East Africa, but also elsewhere in the continent. The article posits that contemporary boundary disputes in the focal area are largely associated…

Issue 13:2

Chikodiri Nwangwu, Chukwuemeka Enyiazu, Ejikeme Jombo Nwagwu, Christian C. Ezeibe

Regionalism in World Politics: Interrogating the Relevance of the Economic Community of West African States in Global Political Economy

Globalisation has promoted the connections among sovereign states in the international political economy. Despite the preponderance of neo-protectionist tendencies in the United States and some European countries, the import of regionalism in global political economy has not waned. While economic regionalism was adopted in the advanced capitalist formations as a logical consequence of and/or the instrument for the universalisation of capitalism, the emergence and/or revival of regional…

Issue 13:2

Junuguru Srinivas

Modi’s Cultural Diplomacy and Role of Indian Diaspora

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into the helm of affairs, he has stressed the role of the Indian Diaspora in Indian foreign policy making because he had realized the importance of the Diaspora in his development strategy. More than 25 million members of the Indian Diaspora are scattered around the world, which includes more than 3 million Indian origin Diaspora in the United States (US). According to the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs [This Ministry has been scrapped during…

Issue 13:2

Lesіa Dorosh, Olha Ivasechko, JarynaTurchyn

Comparative Analysis of the Hybrid Tactics Application by the Russian Federation in Conflicts with Georgia and Ukraine

The essence and main characteristics of the hybrid war are reviewed as a means of destroying the enemy country from inside due to the effective combination of conventional armed forces, subversion, propaganda, and dissemination of misinformation. The hybrid tactics used by the Russian Federation in Ukraine and Georgia are investigated. A comparativeanalysisof the military component in the confrontation between Russia, Ukraine and Georgia is conducted, the peculiarities of informational and…

Issue 13:2

Arkadiy Alekseevich Eremin, Oleg Konstantinovich Petrovich-Belkin

The ‘War on Drugs’ Concept as the Basis for Combating Drugs in the Western Hemisphere

The article attempts to critically evaluate a controversial transnational phenomenon in the Western hemisphere, known as the ‘War on Drugs’. Started by Richard Nixon to regain the support of his electorate, it has continued to dominate anti-drug policies in the Americas until now. In this article, the authors conduct a thorough analysis of all the traits of this concept in relation to the effectiveness and capability of limiting drug production and supply as well as countering drug-related…

Issue 13:2

Christopher Portosa Stevens

Kinds of Democracy: New Models of Federal Republics and Multi-Level Governments

In “Kinds of Democracy,” I vary the kind of democracy across levels in multi-level governments and federations. Varying the kind of democracy from level to level produces new competitive structures (and also new kinds of political complexity), such as producing opportunity structures for political parties to move up or down in a federation or multi-level government. Varying the kind of democracy from level to level also partly resembles some of the irregular and complex political forms of city…

eContribution

Alina Shymanska

Reviewing the Results of Petro Poroshenko's Presidency and the 2019 Ukraine's Presidential Elections

During the Revolution of Dignity, the people of Ukraine decisively made a historical decision to re-establish their true European identity and dismiss their Soviet past by electing the pro-European candidate Petro Poroshenko as the country's new president. This decision was due in part by the increased interference of the Russian government into the domestic and international affairs of Ukraine. This inference can be seen in Russia's attempt to prevent Ukraine from signing the European Union…

Editor's Desk

Mitchell Belfer, Isabella Nardone

The Issues that Shape Middle Eastern Politics

Three main issues have come to dominate global headlines in the first quarter of 2019: the Iran-US relationship, Israel and its parliamentary elections and the ever-changing dynamics in Libya. The outcome of each of these will impact regional and trans regional relations and understanding aspects of them is essential. In the following analytical snapshot — a Q & A — information of these three situations is teased out via conversation.   ***   Nardone (Formiche)—What could happen…

Gender and Peacebuilding

Book Review

Tabe George Eyong

Gender and Peacebuilding

Gender that refers to a person’s characteristics of either being female or male typically with considerations to social and cultural differences instead of biological ones has remained a much-contested topic in our societies for a very long time. Conversely, the topic of peacebuilding remains a contested topic in security studies and conflict resolution and it is often debated by scholars and policymakers as to who should be involved in peacebuilding operations and who not. Associating these…

Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: Fifteen Contentious Questions

Book Review

Kacper Szulecki

Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: Fifteen Contentious Questions

In climate and energy studies, it is not only the continuous rise of global average annual temperatures that is apparent. The temperature of the discussions on policy, governance and technology solutions has also reached a boiling point in many areas. This is most visible in the case of controversial energy generation technologies. Controversial here means, from one or another perspective, nearly all of those that are or may become available. Coal? The dirtiest fuel out there, or – as…

Climate Governance in the Developing World

Book Review

Lapo Degl’Innocenti

Climate Governance in the Developing World

Climate change is a serious issue, and not only from an environmental perspective. Climate governance, a practice once thought to be a concern only for the industrialised Western countries, has recently shifted and tried to include also the heterogeneous developing world, more and more responsible for the total emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the resulting global warming. Climate governance in the developing world lists and analyses how a specifically chosen sample of developing…

Issue 13:1

Krzysztof Brzechczyn, Michał Kwiecień, Grzegorz Lewicki, Cristina Petrescu, Dragoş Petrescu, Rafał Paweł Wierzchosławski, Aviezer Tucker

Author Meets Critics Symposium: Discussion on Legacies of Totalitarianism

The symposium on the book Legacies of Totalitarianism by Aviezer Tucker was part of the conference Between Enslavement and Resistance: Attitudes toward Communism in East European Societies (1945-1989) held in Poznań, Poland (June 15-16, 2018). The conference and the symposium were organized by the Institute of National Remembrance, Poznań Division, the Institute of Philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, The Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Beckett University, and the Poznań…

Issue 13:1

Kardo Rached, Ahmed Omar Bali

Post-ISIS Iraq and the Shia Armed Groups

The political environment of Iraq in the period from 2011-2014 experienced a great degree of turbulence. Many Sunni tribes in the Anbar, Ramadi and Salahadin regions organized a daily protest against the central government, accusing it of being sectarian. Gradually, these protests become more popular, and the Baghdad government became fearful that it would spread into the other regions of Iraq. In order to control the protests, the government used force, and many were killed. Simultaneously, in…

Issue 13:1

Vladislav Strnad, Nik Hynek

Ukrainian State-Building Redux: Triangular Role Performance Under Kuchma

The article systematically analyses the Ukrainian behaviour within the EU-Ukraine-Russia triangle during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma (1994-2004). As it is shown, this was a period to which the origins of many recent, and tumultuous, developments can be traced. We utilise an interdisciplinary Foreign Policy Analysis role theoretical framework, and through the means of triangulated content analysis apply it to the empirical material containing, inter alia, primary data in the Ukrainian…

Issue 13:1

Ostap Kushnir

Messianic Narrations in Contemporary Russian Statecraft and Foreign Policy

The article aims to uncover the nature and distinctive features of the contemporary messianic narrations in the Russian public discourse, as well as estimate their impact on the actual policy-making. For this reason, the article scrutinizes the political philosophy of Aleksandr Dugin, Nataliia Narochnitskaia, Egor Kholmogorov, and Vadim Tsymburskii. Their major messages are contrasted and compared to a variety of recent developments in Russia’s domestic and foreign policies. The hypothesis is…

Issue 13:1

Andrii Voitsikhovskyi, Oleksandr Bakumov, Olena Ustymenko, Mykola Marchuk

The Legal Mechanisms of Ensuring Regional Cooperation in Combatting Crime Within the Framework of the Council of Europe: Experience of Ukraine

Implementation of legal reform in Ukraine, the content of which can be defined as a gradual movement towards a democratic and rule of law state, makes the problem of counteraction to crime especially relevant. Nowadays it is the object of broad regulatory measures, in particular, international and legal regulation of cooperation between states in combatting crime. The multifaceted nature of modern international relations in one way or another causes expansion of the spheres of cooperation…

Issue 13:1

Ksenia A. Efremova

Small States in Great Power Politics: Understanding the “Buffer Effect”

This paper deals with the concept of “small states” as opposed to “great powers”. Both concepts are considered to be ideal types with peculiar behaviour characteristics. It is argued that in certain circumstances (i.e. within a “buffer system”) small states may affect the behaviour of great powers in a way that mitigates the latter's rivalry. It appears that a buffer state jammed between two rivals is not a pawn but a pivot in great power games, which may choose from a range of strategies …

Issue 13:1

Michal Kolmaš

Japan’s Security and the South Sudan Engagement: Internal and External Constraints on Japanese Military Rise Reconsidered

The article aims to understand the practical relevance of Shinzo Abe’s recent security changes and their role in Abe’s general security strategy. It argues that although Shinzo Abe’s goal is a revision of Japan’s post-war security posture, there is still a plethora of legal, normative (popular) and practical constraints that prevent him from doing so. In order to illustrate these constraints, the article analyses the first practical implementation of the new security legislature: Japanese…

Issue 13:1

Petya Ivanova, Mahmoud Khalifa

The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Development Tourism Sector: A Comparative Study Between Bulgaria and Egypt

There are two main parts of the article that present the Bulgarian and Egyptian non-governmental organisations in the field of tourism. The legislative framework and conditions for registration of such organisations as well as their role in the overall management of tourism in both countries differ. Special attention is paid to non-governmental organisations, which are created in Bulgaria and Egypt on a trade, product and territorial basis, and their roles in development tourism sector.

Issue 13:1

Zeren Langjia, Jian Shi

Terrorism Situations and its Challenges to European Union: A Longitudinal Statistical Analysis

Terrorism is increasingly threatening world peace and stability, not least during the post-9/11 era. In particular, viewed from Europe’s geographical proximity to areas of conflicts, terrorism is a greater menace to European continental peace, security and stability. As a natural consequence, terrorism becomes a top concern of the European Union (EU). In practice, it comes to be not merely necessary but also important to have a better and clearer idea about terrorist landscapes in Europe so…

2019 - Volume 13 Issue 2

Borderlines, Natural Resources and Conflicts: Towards a…

This article seeks to examine the phenomenon of boundary disputes in East Africa. By way of a case-study approach, guided by the theory of territorial materialism, the study posits that the ‘colonial causation’ narrative, exemplified in the ethnic partitioning/disintegration hypothesis, does not…

Regionalism in World Politics: Interrogating the Relevance of…

Globalisation has promoted the connections among sovereign states in the international political economy. Despite the preponderance of neo-protectionist tendencies in the United States and some European countries, the import of regionalism in global political economy has not waned. While economic…

Modi’s Cultural Diplomacy and Role of Indian Diaspora

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into the helm of affairs, he has stressed the role of the Indian Diaspora in Indian foreign policy making because he had realized the importance of the Diaspora in his development strategy. More than 25 million members of the Indian Diaspora are…

Comparative Analysis of the Hybrid Tactics Application by the…

The essence and main characteristics of the hybrid war are reviewed as a means of destroying the enemy country from inside due to the effective combination of conventional armed forces, subversion, propaganda, and dissemination of misinformation. The hybrid tactics used by the Russian Federation in…

The ‘War on Drugs’ Concept as the Basis for Combating Drugs in…

The article attempts to critically evaluate a controversial transnational phenomenon in the Western hemisphere, known as the ‘War on Drugs’. Started by Richard Nixon to regain the support of his electorate, it has continued to dominate anti-drug policies in the Americas until now. In this article,…

Kinds of Democracy: New Models of Federal Republics and Multi…

In “Kinds of Democracy,” I vary the kind of democracy across levels in multi-level governments and federations. Varying the kind of democracy from level to level produces new competitive structures (and also new kinds of political complexity), such as producing opportunity structures for political…