Since one of the most effective ways of strengthening the implementation the green infrastructure principle is through spatial planning, the paper aims at presenting the overview of the contemporary policies in the domain of environment and planning. After a brief overview of European and regional (i.e. Western Balkan) documents in the field, the central part of the paper elucidates the extent to which the concept of green infrastructure is elaborated in Serbian legislative framework.
In the last twenty years the world has undergone serious changes, unfortunately not in positive direction. The collapse of the bipolar system and the establishment of one bloc hegemony - NATO headed by the USA, has not only failed to establish more stable and secure international relations, but, on the contrary, it has corresponded with the greatest insecurity and uncertainty of the mankind ever since World War II till the present day. After the 'counter-balance' disappeared, there has been open political, economic, even direct military, interference by the Alliance states in the sovereignty of many countries. Consequently, the world's conflicting potential has largely increased. Apart from the threats present from earlier, the contemporary world is faced with a series of new, formerly unknown or marginal, ones. The most notable among them are: uncontrolled escalation of armed conflicts; international terrorism; proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction; expansion of drugs trafficking; illegal cross-border migrations; human trafficking and trafficking in human organs; piracy; criminalization of different areas of living; etc. The economic and financial crises have additionally warned the world of the limitedness of natural resources and, in the most serious form, posed the issue of the fight for preservation, or conquest of areas rich in raw minerals. Apart from the current courses of action in the fight for control over the natural resources, both new methods of action and new areas of contest are emerging (Arctic, Antarctic .; above and under the Earth's surface; on the sea, and under the sea bottom), over which the interests of great powers will be increasingly conflicting. Michael Klare, the author of well-known books 'Blood and Oil' and 'Resource Wars', convincingly evokes a growing hunger for resources by the picturesque title of his latest book 'Race for What's Left: Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources'. For success in this new competition in strength and skills, new strategic concepts are required. Some have already been created and preliminarily tested; others are being prepared for implementation and corrected 'on the go' based on the performance of already proved solutions; still others are being hurriedly shaped. Understandably, along with this, what actual and potential rivals do related to this, or what their activities suggest, is watched closely.
The term politics, from its origin until nowadays, has been closely related to coercion and effects of coercion. The first rulers were finding support in a belief in the divine nature of power, but since, in time, this belief faded, the solution was found in physical superiority of rulers. The development of politics as an activity by which a community can be governed instrumentally, conditioned its closer linkage to force. Politics was sometimes identified with force, and sometimes politics was using force as an instrument for taming the bullying by others. Undoubtedly, the man is a rational and instinctive being. Monopolization of bullying within political activity made it possible to place the force, depending on the circumstances, into the service of one or the other attribute of human nature. Integration processes in political, economic, military and other areas, significantly contributed to changing the role of a national state in its formerly inviolable spheres, even in those elements that are considered classic attributes of the state as an institution (sovereignty, independence, monetary policy, defense, state power legitimacy, etc). Does this power, which is 'taken away' from the national state, go away, through integrative processes with other international subjects, to some distant power and alienated centers, or does it, on the contrary, enter the corpus of political activity that strengthens its overall position? Without immersing into more profound analysis about what is closer to the truth, it is a fact that through integrative processes a number of 'state' activities is transferred to joint institutions. In the spirit of this paper, the most important institutions are those which decide about organization, preparing, functioning, and using of the state (interstate) power. Strategic solutions concerning these matters, are a part of domestic and intergovernmental policy. They are products of a great number of internal and external factors, starting from economic and institutional, to social and cultural-traditional, and to international.
Summary: Establishing of the New institutional economics as dominant institutional theoretical perspective, has contributed to the theoretical affirmation of the institution and to the recognition that institutions and institutional changes are an important part of the overall dynamics of economic reality. Therefore, the importance of defining the "new" institutional paradigm is reflected not only in the "endogenization" of the institutions as the relevant economic variables, but also in the possibilities of a broader consideration of the potential contribution of institutions to the overall macroeconomic performances. However, despite to the significant theoretical achievements in the economic recognition of the multiple institutional importances, in the observation of institutional change as a determinant of economic development, many questions remain open. For instance, it is still not known which institutions, in which specific forms required, or rather useful for economic development, or in which context. Although it is known the role that specific institutions can play in the process of the economic development, the problem is how to build such institutions. If developmental effects generally depend on the quantity and quality of institutional changes, than how to explain the fact that the establishment of the same institutional forms in the countries with approximate developmental preconditions, usually in practice does not led to the equal developmental results? This study, in form of a doctoral dissertation, is exactly driven by such issues. Therefore, as its primary goal assumes the theoretical development of the concept of institutional contributions to the development and identification of institutional criteria and mechanisms for improving economic performance. The basic assumption on which this dissertation is based implies that institutions and institutional changes are necessary, but not sufficient condition for good macroeconomic performance of the country. This additional requirement is contained precisely in the implementation of "good governance", namely the establishment of the basic principles of this concept. The research is based on an analytical basis of the theoretical framework of the New institutional economics. Starting of the known information about the nature of institutions and institutional change, as well as on the basic assumptions of institutional sustainability and efficiency, there are theoretical elaborated concept of the institutional contributions to the development. Special attention was given to comparative institutional analysis. By combining information from different comparative economics, there are studied the relationship between institutional quality and economic efficiency. An attempt was made in order to identify main channels through which institutional quality determined economic performance, and therefore which is a possible causes of institutional inefficiency. Through the analysis of several representative cases in practice, the empirical validity of the findings is further checked. Since development issues become topical, especially during the crisis, it is clear incentives to explore the institutions and mechanisms of institutional change and use this knowledge in achieving, in a greater degree, controlled development.
Ekološke i klimatske promene na planeti postoje koliko i sama planeta, a čovek se od svog postanka prilagođavao ovim promenama. Jedan od načina adaptacije jesu migracije stanovništva u potrazi za hranom, boljim uslovima života i prijatnijim vremenskim uslovima za život. Posebnu pažnju u poslednjoj deceniji izazivaju takozvane ekološke izbeglice. Faktori sredine su oduvek pokretači ljudskih kretanja, a sa porastom svesti o promenama koje se dešavaju u prirodnoj sredini i aktuelnog problema klimatskih promena povećalo se interesovanje za moguće obrasce po kojima će se odvijati kretanja u budućnosti. U ovoj doktorskoj disertaciji ćemo se baviti uzrocima nastanka ekoloških katastrofa, njihovim političkim, ali i drugim posledicama. Takođe ćemo proučiti migracije stanovništva koje nastaju pod uticajem ekoloških katastrofa. Uticaj čoveka na promenu uslova života vrlo je veliki, a stepen uticaja se povišavao zajedno sa razvojem civilizacije, kako u pozitivnom tako i u negativnom smislu. Čovek je uspeo da veliki deo prirode vremenom potčini svojim potrebama, što je dovelo i do kumulativnog efekta u vidu neželjenih posledica za životnu sredinu u formi prirodnih i tehnološki prouzrokovanih katastrofa. Uvodna razmatranja u doktorskoj disertaciji biće posvećena globalnom problemu zagađenja životne sredine, ekološkim katastrofama okvirno i problemu migracija, a u prvom delu će biti razrađen metodološki okvir po kojem će se odvijati istraživanje. Drugi deo teze odnosiće se na teorijski okvir istraživanja, sa akcentom na pojmovnom definisanju ekoloških katastrofa uopšte, njihovim potencijalnim uzrocima i posledicama kroz istoriju čovečanstva, kao i uticaju ekoloških katastrofa na pokretanje migracije stanovništva. Treći deo doktorske teze obuhvataće problem miigracija, teorijsko određenje, komparativnu analizu uslova pod kojima su nastale najveće migracije pokrenute ekološkim katastrofama u svetu, političke, socijalne, kulturalne i ekonomske posledice kakve su nastupile u zemljama koje su naselili ljudi izbegli sa tih područja. Četvrti deo ove teze odnosiće se na pripremljenost Evrope za slučaj iznenadne ekološke katastrofe, sa akcentom na empirijskom istraživanju uticaja trenutne krize sa izbeglicama iz severne Afrike, na Evropu kao krajnje odredište ljudi koji napuštaju svoje domove zbog nemogućih uslova za život, politiku koju sprovodi Evropska unija prema izbeglicama; nastale i očekivane političke, socijalne, ekonomske i kulturološke posledice ove tzv. "migrantske krize". Dobijeni podaci će se analizirati i poslužiti u izvođenju zaključaka iz rezultata empirijskog istraživanja. U petom delu ćemo razmatrati uslove pod kojima može doći do pojave konflikta na teritoriji koju naseljavaju imigranti. Šesti deo će sadržati predlog modela za rešavanje tekuće migrantske krize, a sedmi će sadržati istraživanje o tome koliko je javnost uopšte upoznata sa terminologijom i problemima kojima se bavimo u ovoj doktorskoj disertaciji, kao i odnosu javnosti prema trenutnoj situaciji sa migrantima. U osmom delu biće izneta sistematizovana zaključna razmatranja o onome što smo utvrdili i šta smo postigli izradom ove teze. ; Environmental and climate change on the Earth is as old as the planet itself, but the man from its inception adapted to these changes. One way of adapting to these changes is the migration of people in search of food, better living conditions and pleasant weather circumstances for life. A special attention in the last decade has been devoted to so-called environmental refugees. Environmental factors have always triggered human movement, with increasing awareness of the changes that occur in the natural environment and the current problems of climate change, which has increased interest in possible patterns of movement that will take place in the future. In this doctoral thesis we deal with the causes of ecological disasters, but also their political and other consequences. We will also study the migration of population that occured under the influence of environmental disasters. The impact of man on the changing conditions of life is high and the degree of influence has evolved along with the development of civilization, both in a positive and in a negative way. The man managed to a large part of nature eventually submit to its needs, which led to a cumulative effect in the form of adverse consequences for the environment in the form of natural and technological disasters. Preliminary thoughts in this doctoral dissertation will be devoted to the global problem of environmental pollution, ecological disasters framework, and the problem of migration, and in part one the methodological framework will be worked out according to which the research will take place. The second part of the thesis refers to the theoretical framework of research with emphasis on the conceptual definition of ecological disasters in general, their potential causes, and consequences throughout the history of mankind, as well as the impact of environmental disasters on the launch of the migration of the population. The third part of the doctoral thesis will include migration problem, theoretical determination, a comparative analysis of the conditions under which they incurred the largest migration initiated environmental disasters in the world, political, social, cultural and economic consequences that followed in countries that are settled people fled from those areas. The fourth part of this thesis will relate to the preparation of Europe in case of sudden environmental disasters, with an emphasis on empirical study of the impact of the current crisis with refugees from the Northern Africa to Europe as the final destination of people who leave their homes because of the impossible conditions of life, the policy implemented by the European Union for refugees; incurred and expected political, social, economic and cultural consequences of this so-called "Migrant crisis". The data will be analyzed and used in the performance of drawing conclusions from the results of empirical research. In the fifth section, we discuss the conditions under which a conflict may occur on the territory inhabited by immigrants. The sixth part will contain a model for resolving the current crisis, migrant, a seventh part will include research abou how much the general public is familiar with the terminology and the problems we deal with in this dissertation, as well as public attitudes towards the current situation with migrants. In the eighth part there will be presented systematized concluding observations about what we have established and what we have achieved by doing this thesis.
Just in the immediate neighborhood of European Union (EU), Western Balkan (WB) countries are lagging behind in the energy transition regardless technological advances and policy instruments available. EU recently created a momentum for the energy transition acceleration with the European Green Deal, which is forwarded to the WB through the Energy Community secretariat and in general, the response in the form of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) is expected in the short to midterm. Recently presented the new Republic of Serbia's Low Carbon Development Strategy with Action plan (LCDSA) will be analyzed, commented and improvements suggested for the acceleration of the energy transition, based on the newest findings from the simulation-based optimization techniques using the sectors coupling approach. Furthermore, integrated assessment modeling techniques (IAM), exploring the climate and energy cross impacts with the more details will be included. The purpose of the research is to provide the decision makers in the WB with the best available insights regarding sustainable energy systems, and citizens of the WB with to benefit from adoption of these strategies.