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Abstract: Russian Military Capability in a Ten-Year Perspective – 2019Una Hakvåg (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)) reviews Russian Military Capability in a Ten-Year Perspective – 2019, an analysis of Russia's Armed Forces and their fighting power, edited by Fredrik Westerlund & Susanne Oxenstierna.

The article is an advancement of a preceding text which analyzed particular substantive theories of military coup in mainstream Anglo-Saxon political science literature. It provides a synthesis analysis of the previously analyzed literature specialized in military coup research, and because each substantive theory provides explanations of the occurrence of military coups through different independent variables, these factors are categorized for research purposes. Working with the definition of a military coup, the article's goal is to set ten separate theories together into a formal concept of the military coup and express it by means of a synthesized causal model. This model contains individual premises of existing research and constitutes a conceptual framework for the formulation of "the hammer and anvil theory" of military coup. The "hammer" signifies the capacity and commitment of the army to effect a change of government by the use of force or under the threat of it. The "anvil" represents factors which delegitimize a government and de facto hamper its ability to escape the "hammer" blow. ; The article is an advancement of a preceding text which analyzed particular substantive theories of military coup in mainstream Anglo-Saxon political science literature. It provides a synthesis analysis of the previously analyzed literature specialized in military coup research, and because each substantive theory provides explanations of the occurrence of military coups through different independent variables, these factors are categorized for research purposes. Working with the definition of a military coup, the article's goal is to set ten separate theories together into a formal concept of the military coup and express it by means of a synthesized causal model. This model contains individual premises of existing research and constitutes a conceptual framework for the formulation of "the hammer and anvil theory" of military coup. The "hammer" signifies the capacity and commitment of the army to effect a change of ...

Abstract: Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus Lene Wetteland (Norwegian Helsinki Committee) reviews Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus by Dr. Pål Wilter Skedsmo. The book is a revised version of his 2017 PhD thesis in Social Anthropology. Skedsmo uses his personal experience from a project on environmental rights in Armenia in the early 2010s and Armenian civil society's application of the Aarhus Convention as case studies to discuss the issue of Europeanization of Armenia in this context.

Abstract: Russia's operationalization of a sphere of interest in the South CaucasusA central foreign policy objective of Russia is to maintain an exclusive sphere of interest in its post-Soviet neighbourhood. This article analyses how Russia employs a combination of political and military instruments in operationalizing its perceived sphere of interest in the still conflict-ridden South Caucasus. Russia is the only external power in the region to have military bases there, and is the only one seemingly ready to undertake military action. At present, Russia appears satisfied with the status quo in the South Caucasus. The unresolved conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh are therefore unlikely to be resolved in the near future. Unresolved conflicts suit Russia's objectives. Russian military bases in Georgia and Armenia provide Moscow with both a key lever against Tbilisi and Yerevan and a structural advantage for potential Russian military operations in the region. Russia's military posture in the Caucasus is relevant to the potential for large-scale conflict in the Southern war theatre, including the wider Middle East, and not just local conflicts in the Caucasus.

This paper aims to review the existing debate on the relations between national and European levels in the EU and identify existing gaps. It aims at showing the current compartelization of the academic debate and suggesting a possible remedy. It discusses the current trends in Europeanization studies and shows that one of the dimensions (bottom-up) remains understudied. Similarly, the concept has been applied in the area of foreign policy in a very limited way to the detriment of our understanding of reality. Following these findings, the article suggests, firstly, that the relationship between the adjustment to European integration and the ability to pursue one's interest should be studied, both in terms of form and results, and, secondly, that foreign policy should be included in this research framework. ; This paper aims to review the existing debate on the relations between national and European levels in the EU and identify existing gaps. It aims at showing the current compartelization of the academic debate and suggesting a possible remedy. It discusses the current trends in Europeanization studies and shows that one of the dimensions (bottom-up) remains understudied. Similarly, the concept has been applied in the area of foreign policy in a very limited way to the detriment of our understanding of reality. Following these findings, the article suggests, firstly, that the relationship between the adjustment to European integration and the ability to pursue one's interest should be studied, both in terms of form and results, and, secondly, that foreign policy should be included in this research framework.

The image of the social scientist as a stranger is well known. However, there are different approaches to the notion of the stranger in sociology. A comparison of Schutz's & Simmel's conceptions of the stranger enables us to distinguish two forms of fieldwork used in the project Transitional Processes. The social anthropological approach strives to avoid intrusive interventions into the research area. The so-called heuristic investigation uses intentional interventions. Both approaches bring some opportunities & threats especially in the case of cooperation with a scholar who is native to the studied locality. The local researcher can overstep his ethnocentrism thanks to the teamwork. On the other hand, collaboration with strangers may disrupt his loyalty to his ingroup.

On the basis of the analysis of news content from 2008 to 2012, we describe in this article the tendencies of Czech media in dealing with foreign policy topics, using a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative case studies of selected foreign policy events. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that the coverage of political events in the media is highly personalised and viewed through the prism of the personal or political interests of Czech political elites and the conflicts between them. As concerns the diversity of the actors presented and topics covered, the Czech media produce a considerably restricted and more or less uniform stream of news commented upon by a relatively limited spectrum of actors, mainly Czech politicians. For non-political, non-governmental, and international actors, access to the debate is considerably limited. The print media tends to present major political events as power-based conflicts between individuals or groups, rather than as negotiations about public affairs supported by substantive arguments. In effect, Habermas's classical vision of the role of mass media in democracy, which is to promote rational discussion as a desirable form of public debate, is replaced with persuasion through emotional appeal, which has been widely criticised. At the same time, however, some theoretical traditions see it more positively as a less restrictive form of public discourse. ; On the basis of the analysis of news content from 2008 to 2012, we describe in this article the tendencies of Czech media in dealing with foreign policy topics, using a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative case studies of selected foreign policy events. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that the coverage of political events in the media is highly personalised and viewed through the prism of the personal or political interests of Czech political elites and the conflicts between them. As concerns the diversity of the actors presented and ...