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ABSTRACTUnder what conditions can a human rights‐based approach be successfully utilized? This article argues that the efficacy of a human rights discourse is, in large part, determined by the nature of the arena in which rights are claimed. Utilizing process tracing, involving content analysis and in‐depth interviews, the article examines the decades‐long struggle to block the construction of a large dam in southeastern Turkey. The analysis focuses on the struggle's three core dimensions: (a) international activism to influence foreign financial stakeholders; (b) domestic activism targeting the government; and (c) regional conflict over international water flows. Each of these dimensions is characterized by vastly different degrees of discursive rights consensus and leverage. In the international dimension, activists achieved both discursive consensus and leverage and were able to successfully thwart the Turkish government's goal of building a major dam. However, this ultimately proved to be a pyrrhic victory when the Turkish government secured domestic financing for the project. The loss of leverage in the domestic arena rendered anti‐dam activists' rights discourse ineffectual. Finally, the lack of regional consensus on water sharing and Iraq's lack of leverage enabled Turkey to complete the dam.

Factors such as regional-international developments, political, economic, social conditions and security understanding separate the foreign policies of the states from each other and differentiate the expectations of the countries in mutual relations. Turkish-American relations, which have a history of nearly seventy years, have seen a fluctuating course with sometimes cooperation and sometimes crises. Therefore, identifying the root causes of crises that arise from different reasons and damage bilateral relations gains importance in terms of collaboration between the two countries. In this context, this study argues that the reproduction of Turkey's state identity in the changing international system after the Cold War caused crises in bilateral relations by differentiating foreign policy visions, threat perceptions and international goals with the United States. Based on this, the four crises, in the bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States, starting with the Syrian Civil War and continuing to the present day, will be examined in the dimensions of perception, discourse and politics. Then, possible policies are discussed through risks and opportunities to eliminate the tense atmosphere in Turkey-US relations. In the study, in addition to the literature review, the content and discourse analysis method is used methodologically by making use of the statements of policy makers.

This article considers the ideational and political contexts in which Project 5-100, the Russian excellence in higher education initiative emerged, as well as the specificities of its organisational and behavioural model. While Project 5-100 has been studied in the academic literature as regards its efficiency and how it affected the performance and inner workings of the participating universities, the question of how the project came about and the characteristic traits of its internal set-up still remain largely overlooked. The study focuses on the involvement of local and international players, arguing that their successful and organic cooperation influenced both the architecture and the implementation of the project. This paper contributes to the literature on policy networks by showing that transnational actors do not necessarily undermine or challenge state power and can on the contrary help governments implement systemic change. Inspired by the international experience of establishing world-class universities, Project 5-100 was conceived and lobbied by a small but influential group of visionaries pushing for change who – acting in a concerted and purposive manner – acquired a novel and powerful capacity to use international expertise for the development of a key national project, capable of deeply transforming the country's higher educational system.

This paper presents the experience of Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA) teaching staff in providing education and training to students in Maritime communications and the GMDSS during the pandemic crisis. Within a one-year time period including a number of complete and partial lockdowns, many courses were organized in the Academy following all restrictions imposed by the situation. An attempt to find a solution for on-line/distance learning, practical face-to-face training with simulators and a combination thereof by using web-based information technologies is described. A methodology is presented where simulators have been used during complete lockdowns for on-line training, remaining in compliance with the requirements of IMO, international and national rules and regulations, such as SOLAS International Convention, the International Convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers STCW78/95 and Ordinance No.6 on seafarers' competence in the republic of Bulgaria. Advantages and disadvantages of on-line education and training in Maritime communications and the GMDSS are analyzed in depth. Examination results are presented in comparison with results of traditional education and training provided before the pandemic crisis. Some ideas for development and improvement of teaching methodologies based on modern web-based information technologies are discussed in the conclusions.

The article contains analyses of the formation of a new strategy of EU towards Afghanistan taking into account recent dramatic changes of strategic environment in connection with the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from the country. The author devotes attention in this context to the reasoning for adaptation of the previous EU strategy on Afghanistan which was based on the prioritization of a «soft power» concept. The article enumerates possible elements of a perspective EU strategy – support to international efforts aimed at a comprehensive peaceful regulation of the Afghan crises, suppression of international terrorism, strengthening security of the country and providing large-scale economic assistance for sustaining development of Afghanistan as a guarantee of its stability in the future. The article underlines that the concept of interconnectivity between Central Asia – Afghanistan – South Asia and strategic partnership with India are actively used by EU for integration of Afghanistan into the regional cooperation and strengthening its sustainable development and security. The author sheds light on the convergence of the approaches of the EU and Russia on peaceful settlement of the Afghan crises including possibility of joint actions through different international formats aimed at peaceful and sustainable post-conflict development of Afghanistan.

This article presents a history of efforts by the World Health Organization and its most important ally, the World Federation for Medical Education, to strengthen and standardize international medical education. This aspect of WHO activity has been largely ignored in recent historical and sociological work on that organization and on global health generally.Historical textual analysis is applied to the digitalized archives and publications of the World Health Organization and the World Federation for Medical Education, as well as to publications in the periodic literature commenting on the standardization of international medical training and the problems associated with it.Efforts to reform medical training occurred during three distinct chronological periods: the 1950s and 1960s characterized by efforts to disseminate western scientific norms; the 1970s and 1980s dominated by efforts to align medical training with the WHO's Primary Healthcare Policy; and from the late 1980s to the present, the campaign to impose global standards and institutional accreditation on medical schools worldwide. A growing number of publications in the periodic literature comment on the standardization of international medical training and the problems associated with it, notably the difficulty of reconciling global standards with local needs and of demonstrating the effects of curricular change.

Legitimization of the institutional system of the European Union as an international organization sui generis The legitimacy of political power is one of the most important theoretical and research problems related to power as a social phenomenon and the very important issue of practice of its exercise, the functioning of the political institutions, political systems etc. Both scientific reflection and empirical research on legitimacy of political power are devoted mainly to this issue in relation to the state and its institutions. The purpose of the study is to present the issue of legitimacy of the European Union's institutional system as a specific, sui generis, international organization. In the first part of the article the problem of "democracy deficit" and "legitimacy deficit" in the functioning of the EU and its institutions is synthetically showed. In the next part it has been identified the specific features of the EU as an international organization and its institutional system which have the key importance to the question of legitimacy. The last section contains conclusions, that is consequences resulting from the nature of the EU and its institutional system in the context of the problem of legitimacy.

The rhetoric leaders use to speak to domestic audiences about security is not simply bluster. Political agents rely upon stories of enmity and threat to represent what is happening in the international arena, to whom and why, in order to push national and international security policy agendas. They do so for the simple reason that a good story is a powerful political device. This article examines historical 'calls to arms' in the United States, based on insights from archival research at US presidential libraries and the United States National Archives. Drawing on narrative theory and political psychology, the article develops a new analytic framework to explain the political currency and staying power of hero–villain security narratives, which divide the world into opposing spheres of 'good' and 'evil'. Shifting the conceptual focus away from speakers and settings towards audience and affect, it argues that the resonance of hero–villain security narratives lies in the way their plot structure keeps the audience in suspense. Because they are consequential rhetorical tools that shape security policy practices, the stories political agents tell about security demand greater attention in the broader field of international security studies.

The global volume of travel has grown steadily for decades and hence the border closures and travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 have created an unforeseen impact on the number of international border crossings. In air traffic alone the data show a striking 75.6% decrease in the number of scheduled international passengers. We might hasten to think that the strict travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 crisis have in principle treated mobile populations equally – for once we have all been banned from travelling. We could even consider the recent initiatives to introduce "vaccination certificates" as a fair and democratic way to reintroduce safe international travelling. In reality, the idea of a COVID-19 certificate is but a new layer in the broader landscape of highly uneven global mobility where travellers' citizenship and place of origin truly matter. This article discusses some of the major inequalities embedded in the global mobility regime and argues that the idea of the COVID-19 certificate as an equaliser remains completely disconnected from these underlying realities. To conclude, the article discusses problems related to uneven access to digital travel documents, such as the proposed COVID-19 certificate.

External evaluations by an international committee of the scientific risk assessment and decision-making processes of the Netherlands Competent Authority for the authorisation of plant protection products and biocides (Ctgb) were conducted in 2013 and 2018. Based on the experience drawn from them, a general guidance for such visitations is suggested. An international visitation committee examined the structure and management of the Authority, its human resources and staff policy, the scientific processes and output, the documentation and communication of its decisions and the mechanisms for keeping up to date with international scientific developments. Attention was paid to the degree of openness and transparency throughout the organisation and in particular when dealing with confidential information. From the experience gained it can be concluded that visitations not aiming at finding mistakes and omissions but instead focusing on recommendations and constructive suggestions will result in cooperation, mutual trust and acceptance of the recommendations made. A follow-up visitation after a few years can be effective in maintaining a traceable, high-level scientific output. In view of the strong drive towards the European Union-wide harmonisation of the regulatory practices of hazardous chemicals, a voluntary evaluation of regulatory authorities' scientific performance is recommended as a means for organisational learning.

International migration has emerged as one of the most controversial phenomena of the 21st century. The complexity and implications of global migrations require that social work practitioners and researchers have access to data-informed research and critical analyses. However, the content of recent social work research on international migration has not been adequately examined to assess whether and to what extent this substantive area is being addressed. This article explores how social work research published in five leading social work journals—Health & Social Work, Research on Social Work Practice, Social Service Review, Social Work, and Social Work Research—is advancing our understanding of international migration and where it may be lacking. Focusing on articles published between 2007 and 2016, the authors analyzed content addressing immigrants and refugees. The content analysis indicates that social work research is making a strong contribution in the area of mental health but is not adequately addressing critical dimensions of stratification, including race, ethnicity, and legal status. Authors also find ambiguity in how "immigrant" is defined and in the generation(s) addressed. Authors argue that maximizing social work's contributions requires offering more nuanced definitions of the immigrant populations addressed and paying greater analytical attention to dimensions of inequality.

How do U.S. International Military Education and Training programs affect the recipient states` behavior in militarized interstate disputes? While the relationship between U.S. military aid in the form of arms and equipment transfer and MID involvement has been studied extensively in international relations literature the effects of U.S. IMET programs on the same phenomena has been largely ignored. This study intends to fill some of this gap. This paper proposes that American educated and trained foreign military personnel return home with a better understanding about the role of the military as an instrument of national power, civil-military relations, and the cost of war. These military personnel advise their political masters against the use of military force during international disputes leading to a decreased probability of both MID initiation and escalation. To test this argument the analysis employs a merged dataset from the Correlates of War Projects and the most prominent U.S. IMET and coups data. Using logistic regression analysis this study finds that more U.S. IMET support a country receives the less likely it initiates MIDs. The analysis also finds that countries that receive U.S. IMET support are less likely to escalate ongoing MIDs to higher levels of hostility.

A new world order is taking shape as a result of the relative decline of the United States (US) and other Western economies. An important aspect of relative decline is a progressive secular slowing down of productivity growth. Another is the way US development has been shaped and to some extent offset by international resource transfers. To explain these phenomena, attention is paid to the role of profitability as a driver of productivity and investment and global hegemony as a driver of international resource transfers. Particular attention is paid to an empirical analysis of the profitability of the US corporate non-financial sector and the existence of a secular decline in profitability since the mid-1960s interrupted only by the upward phases of a series of shorter-term economic cycles. Attention is also paid to the role of financial investments and some of the international resource transfers that have shaped, offset, and contained relative economic decline. An analysis of these trends frame and explain epochal changes in the dynamics and map of uneven and combined development and the likelihood of a global reset as the centre of world development shifts to Asia and the Eurasian continent.

AbstractRegionalism has long conceptual and empirical histories across social sciences, and areas of the international and transnational practice of economics, imperialism, and environmental governance. However, energy regionalism remains in the early stages of development both conceptually and empirically. This article reviews three areas of diverse and interdisciplinary scholarship, including international relations, geography, and regional environmental governance, and draws lessons for research agendas associated with energy regionalism. It draws insights from recent work on comparative regionalisms, together with critical perspectives from geography scholarship, conceptualizing regionness as potentially subnational and transnational, as well as inter‐state. Recent geographical literature examines regions and regionalisms as both sets of relational networks and territorial entities, with infrastructure playing a central role around questions of energy. The use of regionalism in international relations literatures, around regionally‐framed environmental cooperation regimes, offers another set of conceptual and empirical lessons for an energy regionalism research agenda. Arguing that these areas have much to contribute to the study of a conceptual and theoretically diverse understanding of energy regionalisms research, the piece concludes by identifying five nodes for theorizing empirical research on energy regionalism: constructing regionness; inequality, money and power; epistemic and normative dimensions; diffusion and institutional hybridization; and scaling regionalism.