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One of the important trends in the development of international relations in the second half of the 20th — early 21st centuries is the growing importance of small states in international relations. From passive "pawns" in the big political games of the great powers, they are turning into active players capable of pursuing their own national interests in the international arena. During the Cold War period, European neutral states acquired an unique experience of fruitful cooperation in international organizations, peaceful mediation and peacemaking. Multilateral diplomacy, renunciation of the use of force, striving for a peaceful political resolution of conflicts predetermine, to a certain extent, interest in studying the experience of small countries. The decline in the ability of the leading great powers to resolve conflicts effectively on the periphery of the international system, on the other hand, the capability of small countries to generate new ideas and norms in international relations create preconditions for a further increase in the role of small countries in international relations. It is necessary to study not only the great powers, but also the small countries that make up the vast majority of states, if we want to understand the nature of international relations in general, the formation and behavior of modern coalitions and alliances in particular. This article aims to identify the main stages of the study of small states in international relations, to analyze the main approaches to the definition of the concept of "small state", to consider the factors of formation of the foreign policy of small states through the prism of some theories of international relations, to find out the features of the foreign policy behavior of small countries in international relations.

This article introduces the Deadly Electoral Conflict dataset (DECO): a global, georeferenced event dataset on electoral violence with lethal outcomes from 1989 to 2017. DECO allows for empirical evaluation of theories relating to the timing, location, and dynamics of deadly electoral violence. By clearly distinguishing electoral violence from related (and sometimes concurrent) instances of organized violence, DECO is particularly suitable for investigating how election-related violence is connected to other forms of violent political contention. In the article, we present the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the data collection and discuss empirical patterns that emerge in DECO. We also demonstrate one potential use of DECO by examining the association between United Nations peacekeeping forces and the prevalence of deadly electoral violence in conflict-affected countries

There are many shared historical experiences and similarities between Iran and China. Both are legacies of the long-lasting empires and civilisations in West and East Asia, respectively. Like other great Asian empires, Iran and China were confronted with the expansion of the European imperial powers in the early-nineteenth century which ultimately led to the dislocation of these ancient empires. Both countries had resisted pressures towards peripheralization in the global economy by the creation of nationalist popular revolutions and by building modern nation states and identities in the first half of the twentieth century, despite different political systems, cultures, and external relations. Both Iran and China have been trying to escape from the external pressures and internal socio-economic backwardness by the modernization of their states, societies, and economies via a state-led catch-up development strategy. These efforts led to the rise of China in the late-20th century and the emergence of post-Islamic revolutionary Iran 1978/79 as a 'contender state' to the hegemony of the United States (US) in West Asia. This development raises two key questions: why did China succeed in rising as an industrialised regional and global power, and has Iran's development strategy failed so far? I argue that the main reason for post-revolutionary Iran failure to become the regional hegemon comes from two interconnected issues: (i) the failure of its economic development strategy, which was mainly caused by (ii) the 'offensive' external involvement in its own region before a successful catch-up process. Iran's catch-up development strategy, which is the main material basis for the country's rise, was hampered after the revolution by its 'offensive, revolutionary and military oriented foreign policy'. This strategy blocked Iran from access to capital, information and technology concentrated in the core area of the global economy dominated by the US. Unlike Iran, China's successful catch-up industrialisation was driven, in part, through rapprochement and consensus between Chinese leaders and the US and its allies in 1970s. This strategy led China to distance itself from Mao's revolutionary offensive foreign relations and replace it with 'defensive' and peaceful foreign relations in the era of its catch-up industrialisation (1980-2000s). (Asian Aff/GIGA)

The democratic peace program arguably constitutes one of the most successful empirical research programs in the discipline. Its main empirical finding motivated extensive theorizing (e.g., challengers, as well as distinct theoretical enterprises), sparked further debate about how to conceptualize and operationalize democracy, and shifted the foreign policy discourse, particularly in the United States. Lost in these successes, however, is a critical unanswered question: how much interstate peace can the democratic peace potentially explain? We explore these limits (i.e., scope, or empirical coverage) in this study. We first identify the peaceful dyadic relationships—namely those that never go to war across long historical periods. We next classify these dyads as democratic (i.e., both members are democracies) or nondemocratic. The empirical analysis then examines this democracy–peace relationship across three time periods, three distinct samples (which address potential false positives), two definitions of "peace," and two thresholds for democracy. Regardless of how we approach the data, only 4–26 percent of all peaceful dyads qualify as "democratic." Because we control for the obvious trivial explanation (insufficient capabilities due to distance), some other (set of) factor(s) must account for the majority of interstate peace. We close with a discussion about where future research might search for these factors, as well as the larger policy implications of the study.

The two decades since the adoption of the first Security Council Resolution under the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda has paved the way for much introspection and debate. While there have been several positive impacts such as the inclusion of women in peacemaking processes and in bringing to light the deliberate deployment of sexual violence in armed conflict as a tactic, there have also been several gaps in implementation. Since the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325, legal, policy, and academic discourse has focused on armed conflict and women and has made an essentialist case for the inclusion of women in post-conflict peace processes. Among one of the major concerns with the WPS Agenda in its verbiage and implementation is the tendency to conflate 'gender' with 'women's issues.' As a consequence, non-binary gender identities in general, and their experience of armed conflict in particular, have been sidelined and rendered obscure. Sexual violence in conflict has been understood through a limited 'gender' lens, and the unique experiences of queer people in armed conflict have neither been acknowledged or addressed in policy, legislation, and transitional justice measures. Tis paper critically evaluates the WPS agenda and identifies gaps both in its language and implementation through National Action Plans. It presents the unique challenges of sexual and gender minorities in armed conflict and calls for a gender, peace, and security regime founded on the principles of intersectionality, queer theory, and the right to self-determination.

Author offers to consider Vinoba as an example of a modern prophet, i.e. as a person who is driven by understanding of divinity of his mission. The thinker played the role of the mediator between God and people, as well as between dif­ferent social forces. Thereby he was in situation of double dialogue: with God and with people. Such mediation was possible due to Vinoba's refusal of belong­ing to definite caste, political party, religious or philosophical direction. He dedi­cated his life to looking for the ways of conflict resolutions and, as his teacher Gandhi, he dreamed of nonviolent world order. His peacekeeping and social work are presented as practical result of his belief that God and His creation are closely connected. Ability to see God in the Other is the key to understanding of his ethics. Vinoba saw God in the poor and he called others to serve them like God who is embodied in the image of lazar. Also he saw God in the souls of landowners. And therefore he called to their conscience, asking them to share part of their property with the poor. In addition, Vinoba felt God inside himself. Thereby in old age, he thought about psychological "suicide" and about need to refuse from his own human ego in order to realize maximally the inner divine potential. Vinoba's life looks like an example of living of spiritually minded per­son in this context. And the thinker himself is an example of a person who was involved in dialogue with God – embodied in the other people and hidden inside his own soul.

As part of the transition of the armed forces to a peaceful structure in the summer of 1921, the process of strict specialization of the information and intelligence apparatus concentrated in the Second Department of the General (Main) Staff of the Polish Army in two key operational directions: west and east began. This process was fully justified due to the conditions Poland faced at the time, and in order to maintain its recently regained independence it was absolutely essential to know the secrets of the USSR and the Third Reich.

The World Organisation of the United Nations was not conceived of at its origins as a world government. Nor could the substantive provisions of the Charter claim to constitute a comprehensive constitutional document for the entire globe. Many crucial issues of world order relevance were left open at the founding conference of San Francisco, the expectation being that any remaining structural problems would later be resolved by peaceful means. Nonetheless, it was hoped by many observers that the Security Council would be able to establish itself as an instance of last resort to address any emerging emergency situations. While the Security Council was legally well-endowed with decision-making powers under Chapter VII of the Charter, it initially encountered great difficulties in making use of those powers, given in particular the veto right of the five permanent members. After 1990, the differences of opinion among the permanent members softened considerably for a couple of years so that the Security Council could discharge at least some of the responsibilities entrusted to it. Additionally, the Security Council has gradually succeeded in enlarging its purview of action through recourse to its power of issuing recommendations under Chapter VI to individual States. Such country-specific recommendations have permitted the Security Council to engage itself in peace-building through promoting constitutional and societal reforms in many States, in particular in Africa. This kind of interference in domestic matters relies now on a consolidated basis of consistent practice. The evolutionary interpretation of the provisions of the Charter may at the same time suggest that the key concept of 'threat to the peace' in Article 39 of the Charter should also be understood in a way that enables the international community to address global predicaments like climate change and international migration.

The question of European integration in the political thought of the peasant movement in Central and Eastern Europe appeared many times since the second half of the 19th century. In the period of partitions, people searched for paths to freedom and independence. The ideas of creating multinational political organisms were to be means for obtaining a certain degree of subjectivity. Poles saw development opportunities in the federation within the Habsburg monarchy. On the other hand, the union of the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, mainly Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians – there was an apparent chance joint struggle with the Russian invader. The geopolitics of the region, constructed in the result of the First World War, meant that the newly created Central European states found themselves between Germany and Russia – both of which were states with imperialist traditions. The question of the union of states, or mainly peasant parties in the political thought of the Polish and European peasant movements appeared several times, but in the 1930s it was rather an addition to the programs of these parties. Initially, the Poles sought an agreement mainly with neighbours facing similar threats. When the implementation of these plans failed, their programs contented with peaceful international cooperation based on the League of Nations.

New escalation of the Taiwan issue is a complex process, shaped by long-term trends in both the island's internal politics and in the Sino-U.S. relations after 2017. The internal trends in Taiwan are making the very possibility of "peaceful reunification" with mainland China highly questionable for the foreseeable future. Each new electoral cycle in Taiwan was associated with a slide of the local politics towards separatism. Concurrently, the bipartisan anti-China consensus in the U.S. politics has resulted in the changing paradigm of the U.S. cooperation with Taipei and in dramatically intensified U.S.-Taiwan military and political cooperation. China, on the one hand, and Taiwan and the United States, on the other, are finding themselves in an escalation spiral, intensifying their military activities and toughening rhetoric. Each side attempts to reinforce its red lines, which, in turn, is seen as evidence of aggressive plans by its opponents. All sides are engaged in practical preparation for a potential military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. A devastating local war is quite probable within the next several years. 台湾2022年军事政治局势的恶化：原因和前景 台湾问题的新升级是一个复杂的过程。 这个过程受到2017年后台湾内政治和中美关系长期趋势的影响。 在可预见的未来，台湾与大陆和平统一的可能性非常值得怀疑。 台湾每一个新的选举周期逐渐走向分裂。 与此同时，美国政坛的两党反华共识导致美台合作范式发生变化，美台军事政治合作急剧加强。 中国 ， 台湾和美国发现自己处于升级螺旋中，他们加强了军事活动并加强了修辞。 每一方都试图加强其红线，而这反过来又被对手视为侵略性计划的证据。 各方都在为台海可能发生的军事冲突做实际准备。 未来几年很可能发生一场毁灭性的局部战争.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has experienced a cycle of violence over time, which has taken the form of interethnic competition, and civil wars and has become one of the worst humanitarian crises. Faced with an extremely violent peace process, especially in the eastern part of the country, sustainability and peacebuilding have been key points in the intervention plans proposed by international organizations. The peace process has made positive progress in halting regional hostilities, but the humanitarian crisis is far from being over, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 27 million people will need humanitarian aid in 2022. DRC continues to face overlapping crises, extreme poverty, famine, poor governance, corruption, violence in the eastern part of the country, sexual abuse, and blatant human rights violations.In addition to the strategies proposed by international actors (for example, South Africa, the Southern African Development Community - SADC, the African Union, the United Nations, and the European Union), mainly having a regional approach, actions must start at a micro-level, a local intervention aimed at ending ethnic rivalries. Despite the efforts of international actors, the local approach has not yet been effectively implemented. Starting from the demographic and socio-economic context of the DRC, we propose an analysis of the evolution of the Congolese state, focusing on the conflict situation in the late 1990s, the unfolding of conflicts, and how African states and the international community have tried to restore peace. How effective the proposed strategies have been, what are the current issues and why are there no significant results in stabilizing the internal situation of the Congolese state?

Sabemos que el novelista Estanislao de Cosca Vayo, como otros románticos, profesaba una ideología liberal; no obstante, en su periódico El Constitucional (1836) podemos observar textos llenos de recelo hacia otros liberales, en especial aquellos que regresaban del exilio. Vayo defiende siempre la libertad, pero solo si es obtenida sin recurrir a la violencia, y condena las actitudes más extremas de algunos de su bando, a quienes en parte culpabiliza de las represiones habidas durante la década ominosa. Estas mismas ideas podían apreciarse ya en su novela Los expatriados o Zulema y Gazul (1834), que narra la expulsión de los musulmanes de la ciudad de Valencia por el rey Jaime, expatriación presentada como un hecho injusto; pero el narrador, lejos de apoyar cualquier rebelión violenta, se inclina mayormente a la defensa de la vía pacífica y considera que ninguna radicalización es lícita por muchos motivos que pueda tener. Esta novela, por tanto, puede ser interpretada como un gesto político, como una advertencia a los liberales que regresaban del exilio, a fin de que renunciaran a sus posturas más radicales en favor del perdón y la reconciliación. ; It is known that the novelist Estanislao de CoscaVayo, like other romantics, professed a liberal ideology; however, in his newspaper El Constitucional (1836) he wrote some texts full of suspicion towards other liberals, especially those who returned from exile. Vayo always defends freedom, but just if it is obtained without resorting to violence, and he condemns the most extreme attitudes of some people of his faction, whom he partly blames for the repressions during the ominous decade. These same ideas could already be seen in his novel Los expatriados o Zulema and Gazul (1834), which narrates the expulsion of the muslims from the city of Valencia by the King Jaime, an expatriation presented as an unjust fact; however, the narrator, far from supporting any violent rebellion, is mainly inclined to defend the peaceful path, and he considers that no radicalization is lawful for whatever reasons it may have. Therefore, this novel can be interpreted as a political gesture, as a warning to liberals who were returning from exile, in order to renounce their most radical positions in favor of forgiveness and reconciliation. ; Este artículo es uno de los resultados de los proyecto de investigación "Leer y escribir la nación: mitos e imaginarios literarios de España (1831-1879)" —LEyENMIESXIX—, financiado por AEI/FEDER, UE, con referencia FFI2017-82177-P, e "Idea de Andalucía e idea de España en los siglos XVIII-XIX. De la prensa crítica al artículo de costumbres" (PID2019-110208GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).

Syria's domestic dissent created the foundation for the country's civil conflict, where foreign actors have favored the different sides since the 2011 Arab Spring. Iran was invited to play an active role in the conflict owing to the declining fortunes of the Syrian government. Iran welcomed the opportunity and understood that it suited its foreign policy priority to endorse the counter-hegemony approach in the MENA region in addition to maintaining the country's political stability. It is essential to analyze how international media outlets covered Iran's role in Syria. This study addressed the news coverage provided by Great Britain's BBC and Russia's Sputnik—two news agencies from two distinct geopolitical sides—both of which have Persian news outlets covering Iran's role in the Syrian conflict. The foreign policy goals pursued by Iran aim at two different approaches: revisionism and multilateral partnership. Conducting a critical discourse analysis review of the news sources this study sought to demonstrate that the mass media attempt to engineer public consent in armed conflicts. According to the findings, the news agencies attempted to influence the policy preferences to adopt a peaceful architecture or try to induce a consent-driven perception in line with the foreign policy priorities set by their countries of origin.

The article deals with the analysis of methodological and practical problems of studying religious and ethnoreligious extremism in modern society. The authors studied in detail the current conceptual estimations revealing interrelation between religion, terrorism and extremism. The algorithm used by the authors let them determine organizational forms and methods of aggregating negative factors, widely spread mechanisms that hinder the peaceful existence of the wider global community. The necessity of conducting a competent and adjusted social policy (educational, domestic, informational), which takes into consideration interests of different social and religious groups, has been stressed. Such policy should be well balanced, intelligently designed, and having financial and logistical support. The research has led to the conclusion that it is disseminating extremist ideology that leads to the growth of terrorist threat and to new terrorist acts themselves. In the article the authors have come to the conclusion that religious extremism should be considered as a regulated social activity of people who are united by religious and political ideology and perform actions directed at changing the established social and political structure.

In the final analysis, is the security dilemma inescapable? Or can the protagonists in world politics learn to live with never-ending insecurities and the risk of attack without producing precisely the outcomes that they wish to avoid? This article explores this fundamental problem for International Relations theory by performing a thought experiment, in which it applies lessons from aikido to world politics. A form of Japanese budo, or martial art, aikido provides practitioners with a method for harbouring insecurities, and for dealing with attacks that may or may not occur, by empathically caring for actual and potential attackers. The article builds on practice theory in assuming that any social order is constructed and internalised through practices, but also capable of change through the introduction and dissemination of new practices. Although an unlikely scenario, aikido practice could serve as such a method of fundamental transformation if widely applied in world politics. Empirical examples ranging from international apologies and security cooperation to foreign aid and peacekeeping operations are discussed, suggesting that contemporary world politics is at times already performed in accordance with aikido principles, albeit only imperfectly and partially.