Thucydides is considered to be the founder of political realism. Even in those times he determined the basic premises of realism - security and survival. He made an impact on subsequent development of realism embodied in the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Morgenthau, Car, Niebuhr, Aaron, Waltz etc. They will call the system of international relations as anarchical one since there is no supreme arbitrator which will force states to adequate behaviour. His views of realism were given in the volume 'The Peloponnesian War' where he had determined the anarchy of the relationships among states. Such system did not rely on justice and morale, but force and power were the predominant facts. He also introduces the category of just wars by claiming that Sparta led a just war against the increased power of Athens, and observed morale principles. Nevertheless, Thucydides faces contradictory, since Sparta itself as the largest land force of that time had to use force in order to beat Athens. He went ahead since he considered force and power as a necessary condition to achieve other objectives, which was later on adopted by Raymond Aaron. Following the example of the war between Athens and Sparta, he successfully analysed bipolar system of balance of power in which the conflict between the leading members of the two opposite blocks was possible in the end, while beforehand there should have been conflicts among weaker members of both blocks. Thucydides explained the manifestation of force and power using example of the Melian dialogue between the envoys of Athens and Melos. It was about the pure politics of force of Athens regardless of the fact that Melos had its independence.
The international business has been consistently represented in the world economy for more than 150 years and has been continuously increasing and strengthening all the time, making it today the most important economic and globalization factor that undoubtedly dominates the world economy. It is characterized primarily by the so-called. multinational corporations that operate through their affiliates in several countries with the main goal of maintaining and increasing their profits. They are now present practically in all countries of the world, and it is estimated that their business activities now contribute to generating the global GDP of about 75%. Such a progressive multinational business generally bases itself on highly competent management and the use of the latest and increasingly productive technologies as a materialized expression of the development of applied economic and social sciences. Within all this, regarding the world-established freedom of movement of capital and labor, national states are making increasing efforts to regulate the breakthrough and functioning of an international business in their territories in the interest of their progress.In this context, in order to regulate the operation of the international business, it has been selected to study the treatment of international business in Serbia, as a small transition country, with the results thus obtained being representative for all the countries of the present day. Consequently, the focus of these studies is the attitude of the state of Serbia and its higher education towards the emerging international business. In this paper, with the help of an adequate questionnaire and respondents from higher education institutions, the attitude of the state and higher education towards the international business is considered, where adequate breakthrough of the positive and inert suppression of the negative activity of that business is ascertained. The positive treatment of this business is reflected in the state stimulation of its attraction in order to raise the level of GDP and employment, while the negative sides refer to the insufficient protection of national economic entities, the poor protection of the available natural resources, and the insufficient study of that business in higher education system of Serbia.On this basis, the paper presents suggestions that the state of Serbia and its higher education should even more constructively treat international business in the function of its further economic prosperity. Of course, all these results are not representative for Serbia only, but practically for all other countries.
This article presents results of the research in contemporary trends of international economic inequality. The author argues that international economic inequality is a bidirectional and complex concept. The bidirectionality and complexity of the concept is reflected in the fact that there are countries that concurrently converge to or diverge from the most developed countries in terms of their economic development. The key finding presented here is the rise of economic inequality between countries, especially between the poorest and the richest countries. The exceptions are some countries that have made significant progress in the period from 2000 to 2014 in reducing the economic inequality in comparison to the richest countries. The most important factors that have contributed to their progress are distinctive economic institutions and development policies of those countries, as well as the effects of the financial crisis since 2007-2008, which caused a decade-long stagnation in the most developed parts of the world. ; Rad je posvećen istraživanju savremenih trendova međunarodne ekonomske nejednakosti. Namera autora u ovom radu jeste da ukaže da je međunarodna ekonomska nejednakost dvosmeran i složen koncept. Dvosmernost i složenost tog koncepta se ogleda u činjenici da istovremeno postoje zemlje koje se u pogledu razvoja udaljavaju ili približavaju najrazvijenijim državama. Ključni zaključak rada jeste da ekonomska nejednakost između država raste, posebno između najsiromašnijih i najbogatijih država. Izuzetak su pojedine zemlje koje su u periodu od 2000. do 2014. godine učinile značajan iskorak u smanjenju ekonomske nejednakosti u usporedbi sa najbogatijim državama. Najvažnije faktore koji su doprineli tom napretku čine osobene ekonomske institucije i razvojne politike tih država, kao i finansijske krize i višedecenijska stagnacija u najrazvijenijim delovima sveta.
After the Lisbon Treaty has entered into force, the process of concluding treaties between the EU and third countries or international organizations has sustained significant changes. The most important procedural novelty is the establishment of the ordinary procedure that covers almost all agreements the EU concludes with third parties. Under the Lisbon Treaty, this procedure involves a number of stages: negotiations, signing the agreement, and decision to conclude the agreement. For agreements whose subject matter exclusively or predominantly falls into the domain of common foreign and security policy, there are several derogations from the uniform rules of the ordinary procedure. The same provision of the founding treaty regulates the procedures for amending and suspending the agreement in force, as well as the judicial control procedure of those agreements that are yet to be concluded. The ordinary procedure does not cover two subject-specific proceedings pertaining to relatively narrow areas of EU action. More specifically, they refer to the conclusion of agreements in the area of common trade policy and agreements on the exchange rate of the Euro against the currencies of non-member states. The exclusion of trade agreements is probably the result of the differences that still exist in the division of competencies between the Member States and the EU regarding trade in the area of some services. On the other hand, the enactment of a special procedure for agreements on the Euro exchange rate in relation to the national currency rates of third countries stems from the need to ensure the Union's unique position in this field. On the institutional level, the most important actors in the process of concluding EU agreements are the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. The Council has retained the central role in all types of treaty procedures, and it decides on essential issues related to the course and outcome of the process. The Commission has retained the major role in initiating and negotiating the agreements, but it is no longer the exclusive initiator and negotiator in the agreement process. Namely, depending on the subject of the treaty, new entrants in that role are the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the European Central Bank. The European Parliament has strengthened its position in the procedure for concluding EU agreements and can, therefore, be considered the largest 'net' winner of the Lisbon Treaty reform. This is partly due to its new role in the course of negotiations, which implies the right to be immediately and fully informed about all stages of the proceedings, but to a much greater extent it refers to the powers that this body has in the final stage preceding the conclusion of the agreement. Finally, the EU Court of Justice has an important role in this process; its task is to control the compliance of the EU agreements with the founding treaties prior to their conclusion.
By modernizing society, corruption is becoming the global problem and is considered to be the main cause of state dysfunction. Widespread in a large number of countries, embracing political and social life, corruption has become the everyday life of citizens convinced that without corruption there was no proper functioning of the society. Countries in transition, with an unstable political system, are the fundament for the development of corruption. The fight against corruption is long lasting and painful issue with an unknown outcome. The enjoyment of media attention, the commitment of the European Union and the United Nations, the establishment of anti-corruption organizations and agencies within states are mechanisms to combat this global problem. Anticorruption culture as a preventive mechanism prevents the existing and emergence of new forms of corruption. Effective preventive action requires careful and long-term planning to result in a better quality of life in the future.
The paper points to the relations between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) with global characteristics and contemporary security problems. Starting from the existing architecture of MEAs, the importance of several key global security challenges (climate change, water resource management, biodiversity protection, waste management and hazardous chemicals) has been ephasised. Status of the members of the UN Security Council, Republic of Serbia (RS) and RS' neighboroughing countries (EU members) in MEAs is overviewed. The basis of the analysis is 15 MEAs open for universal membership, whose depository is the UN Secretary General. It is noted that there is no uniform membership of the states UN Security Council' members in the MEAs. Some of the UN Security Council's members are not contracting party in several MEAs. At the same time, EU member states (those who are permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as RS neighboring EU countries) are members of majority of the MEAs. RS, in terms of the number of MEAs where is a contracting party, lags behind the neighboring states EU members.
The ultimate goal of game theory is to provide a theoretical model for strategic situations' analysis, i.e. for situations where one actor's choice depends on the behavior of other players in the game. As a concept, game theory is also applicable to the legal context. Legal dialectics and processes are often conducted in some form of strategic interactions. Game theory is a way to see how legal rules affect particular actors' behavior. International Economic Law has its own dynamics which makes the process similar to the analysis through the game theoretical tools. Therefore, the rules of international law are considered as the rules of the game that are taking place among different actors. Game theoretical considerations clarify the substance of the interaction and cooperation of players involved (states, international organizations and other actors). Game theory provides a basis for normative analysis of the issue of implementation of the rules of international law and improves understanding of those rules. The topic of the paper is the application of the game theory in the context of the legal framework established by the World Trade Organization. The member states' dilemma between using the advantages and liberalization options provided by the WTO on the one hand, and joining the regional trade agreements, on the other one, is strategic by nature. Therefore, game theory can contribute to understanding and resolving, using the game of 'prisoner's dilemma' as a model. It is the game which clearly shows that a group of rational egoists can end up worse than a group of actors that acts prima facie contrary to their own interests. 'Prisoner's dilemma' demonstrates why society and law has the need for coordination as well as mechanisms for co-operation. WTO member states put emphasis on the process of liberalization conducted in the framework of regional trade agreements (RTAs); at the same time, their participation in WTO negotiations is not effective and efficient enough to make a breakthrough in the multilateral framework. A solution of the game for Member States is not to cooperate: i. e, liberalization is primarily achieved through regional agreements rather than within the WTO. The rational decision of the Member States (opting for a regional approach) has resulted in a suboptimal result, which is a basic characteristic of the game model based on a prisoner's dilemma: in this case, the optimal solution would be cooperation through a multilateral framework (World Trade Organization).
Starting from the belief that there is a very high level of interdependence between countries and regions in the modern world, that is indivisibility of security at a global level, the Republic of Serbia, acting on its foreign policy plan, advocates affirmation of cooperative security concept. Considering the fact that development of cooperation at a bilateral and multilateral level can significantly contribute to national security, it advocates strengthening of the role of the UN as the world organization, getting the status of the EU member and active participation in the NATO programme "Partnership for Peace", taking into account the opinion on neutrality of the country in relation to the existing military alliances. During the previous decade (particularly the last couple of years) the expansion in terms of the Serbian Armed Forces engagement in multinational operations has been obvious. In addition to a significant increase in the number of the engaged Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces personnel, the engagement framework has been expanded – besides the UN missions our country participates in the EU multinational operations, as well. As one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, in the condition of the world division into blocs, Yugoslavia was rather noticeable among the UN members due to its participation in peacekeeping missions, thus giving a concrete contribution to peacekeeping in the world. In the changed international circumstances after the Cold War, the nature of conflicts in the world has largely changed (the focus of conflicts has been transferred from intercountry to a level of intracountry conflicts), and the way of their resolution, as well. Following the tradition of participation in the UN peacekeeping operations, our country gives a significant contribution to contemporary multidimensional operations. ; Полазећи од уверења да у савременом свету постоји изузетно висок ниво узајамне зависности држава и региона, односно недељивост безбедности на глобалном нивоу, Република Србија се у свом деловању на спољнополитичком плану залаже за афирмацију концепта кооперативне безбедности. Сматрајући да се развијањем процеса сарадње на билатералном и мултилатералном плану може знатно допринети националној безбедности, залаже се за јачање улоге Уједињених нација као светске организације, добијање статуса чланице Европске уније и активно учешће у програму НАТО "Партнерство за мир", уз став о неутралности земље у односу на постојеће војне савезе. Током претходне деценије (нарочито последњих неколико година) евидентна је експанзија у погледу употребе Војске Србије у мултинационалним операцијама. Уз изузетно повећање броја ангажованих припадника Министарства одбране и Војске Србије, проширен је и оквир деловања – поред мисија Уједињених нација наша земља учествује и у мултинационалним операцијама Европске уније. Као један од оснивача Покрета несврстаних земаља, у условима блоковске поделе света, Југославија је међу чланицама Уједињених нација била веома запажена због свог учешћа у мировним мисијама, чиме је давала конкретан допринос очувању мира у свету. У измењеним међународним околностима након "хладног рата", природа сукоба у свету се битно променила (са међудржавног, тежиште сукоба је померено на ниво унутар држава), а самим тим и начин њиховог решавања. Настављајући традицију учешћа у мировним операцијама Уједињених нација, наша земља даје знатан допринос савременим мултидимензионалним операцијама.
Since the adoption of key international documents that regulate mechanisms for preventing corruption over the last two decades, there has been enough time to be able to see the experiences regarding how to measure their performance and the achieved results. Serbia has regulated these mechanisms in its legislation, so it is necessary to look at the results achieved in their implementation. It is also important to look at the results of EU member states in the implementation of these mechanisms, what difficulties they face and how they have so far sought to overcome these difficulties in order to compare those experiences with experiences in Serbia. The aim is first to point out the ways in which the results achieved in preventing corruption are monitored and, on the basis of reports from leading institutions, point to examples of good practice in preventing corruption and the obstacles that need to be addressed.
The Paper observes the foundation and development of OSCE as the most important contemporary security organization from the perspective of historical and political dynamics and the interests of international subjects. Originally founded as Forum for the reduction of tensions between ideologically confronted East and West, OSCE (than: CSCE) has evolved into permanent security organization with diversified activities and jurisdictions. However, that evolution failed to be up to the new challenges, so the needs for further reforms of OSCE reemerged. Second part of the Paper follows the propositions of OSCE system reforms, made by its member states, by Panel (formed on Council of Ministers in Sofia, in December 2004) and by Russia that has even proposed 'Agreement of European security' as the basis for completely new remaking of European security out of the existing OSCE system. In the final part of the Paper, influences of contemporary political crises in OSCE member states on the possible reform of this security organization are being analyzed.
The aim of this paper is to establish and clarify the relationship between corruption level and development among European Union countries. Out of the estimated model in this paper one can conclude that the level of corruption can explain capital abundance differences among European Union countries. Also, explanatory power of corruption is higher in explaining economic development than in explaining capital abundance, meaning stronger relationship between corruption level and economic development than between corruption level and capital abundance. There is no doubt that reducing corruption would be beneficial for all countries. Since corruption is a wrongdoing, the rule of law enforcement is of utmost importance. However, root causes of corruption, namely the institutional and social environment: recruiting civil servants on a merit basis, salaries in public sector competitive to the ones in private sector, the role of international institutions in the fight against corruption, and some other corruption characteristics are very important to analyze in order to find effective ways to fight corruption. Further research should go into this direction.
Measuring the quality of political regimes is a field that occupies a traditional place in statistical studies that have the subject of studying the characteristics of the political system as an important segment of the explanation of the behavior of states in international relations. In a desire for a comprehensive and complete spatial and temporal interaction, researchers seek to classify data categories through an extremely complex set that represents the starting point for further research. The aim of this article is a comparative overview of the most used quantitative instruments of the level of the political regime. In addition, the author points to the advantages or limitations of certain databases. The subject of the comparative presentation are the following databases: Polity IV, Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy-LIED, Authoritarian Regime Dataset, Varieties of Democracy, and other data sets relevant to statistical testing. In addition, the author presents the problems that researchers in security studies meet in "measuring" the level of the political regime, that is, quantifying the relationship between democracy and autocracy. The method of descriptive statistics will be used in order to present the most important statistical cross-sections of the instruments used in modern research.
The phenomena of secret diplomacy and spheres of influence are closely related. History of international relations testify that the most common areas of interest are established through secret diplomacy. Nothing in this sense isn't changed even in the modern world. When you establish a balance of power between the great powers, then you must agree about access on the division of influence spheres. These arrangements are kept at a diplomatic level with the absence of the public. This agreements are secretly signed and its waiting for decades and centuries, and with many of that public will never be aware of. Spheres of influence (zone of interest) are usually created by a secret agreement between two or more major powers through secret diplomacy, and always at the expense of third countries (nation). It can be said that the struggle for spheres of influence was basically the cause of many, including world wars and after World War II continued the USA and the SSSR. History of the Balkan region and relations among people who inhabit it, clearly shows that he was for centuries the scene of clashes geopolitical interests of global power centers. At the present moment Balkan geopolitical scene is area for dominance of the great powers. At some point it will become the space establishment of interested spheres. That will happen through secret diplomacy.
By reporting on some conflicts but not on others, and by representing conflicts they report on in particular ways, the media strongly influence the dynamics and outcomes of democratisation conflicts, and thus also shape the prospects of success of conflict parties. This paper explores the literature on media and conflict by focusing on the ways in which media frame inter-state and civil wars, institutionalised conflicts and social movements in western democracies, and conflicts in nondemocratic and democratising states. Much of the literature discusses the ways in which western media frame foreign conflicts and domestic election campaigns and policy debates, while there is considerably less focus on domestic conflicts in nonwestern settings, such as those that arise during and after transitions from nondemocratic rule. There are only limited attempts to draw parallels between the media coverage of disparate conflicts. In contrast, this study builds upon research findings in these related areas to draw lessons for empirical research of media framing of the contentious dimension of contemporary democratisation. This study concludes that the political context is the main factor that shapes the media framing of various forms of political conflict. Several dimensions of the political context matter in this respect, such as regime type, international (foreign) or domestic perspective, elite consensus or conflict, policy consensus or uncertainty, policy area, more or less institutionalised nature of the political conflict at stake, and the stage of democratisation. Also, the literature suggests that media framing strongly influences political outcomes and thus fosters or undermines democratic institutions in new democracies. .
Official development assistance (ODA) implies the movement of capital with a minimum of one quarter of grant. It was established in the second half of the previous century, with the aim of getting developed countries to set aside a part of their gross domestic product (GDP) as an aid intended for developing countries. In the European Union, development assistance implies a policy which was established at the very beginning of the integration process, but it was not until the Treaty on the European Union was signed that it obtained its legal basis. Today, the European Union is a key partner of developing countries, and together with member states it ensures more than a half of the ODA assets. The countries of the Western Balkans are categorized among the developing countries and receive aid via loans and grants from developed countries and international institutions. The European Union's support is divided into the aid intended for the countries that are in the process of accession and the aid which is meant for other, less-developed countries. The distinction between these two forms of assistance is very difficult, because the character of the support changes in the course of accession process. The scientific problem that this paper deals with pertains to identification of the intensity of the European Union Official Development Assistance and the level of development of the Western Bal-kans. The assets of the European Union's assistance to the region of the WesternBalkans are necessary, yet not sufficient for achieving a higher level of developmentand the European standards in all directions.
