Suchergebnisse

Each State manifests its life's interest to participate actively at internation relations. The United Nations Charter, especially its Articles 1 and 2 - Purposes and Principles, must be considered as the necessary foundation for recent international relations. These articles of the Charter of the United Nations establish universally reorganized principles and norms regulating international intercourse of States of the Family of Nations at the end of XX. as well as at the beginning of XXI. centuries. There are some differences as for the creation of the such rule of behaviours and its implementing into the life of international community. The international life is more complicated development of many various events, situations and controversies in the international arena. Such are facts that we should take into our analysis of international relations. The theories on international relations try to give answers on the issues. We underline the importance of international law 5 theory among them. + The Diplomacy is another very important tool in resolving controversies among the States of the contemporary international community. We differ the bilateral diplomacy from the multilateral one. The usual subjects of both diplomacies are the States as well as international organizations. The main sources of the diplomacy should be international law and its branch - the diplomatic law, the international diplomatic law. Whose the main sources are Vienna conventions on diplomatic and consular intercourses. Further, the author tries to clarify the functions of diplomacy in the light of these conventions, especially, besides other the immunities and privileges of the diplomats. By multilateral diplomacy, the author understands the diplomacy implemented by the international organizations and their organs. He differs so-called classic international oragnization based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members (UNO) from that of integrated structure (EU). The Slovak Republic is a young state and therefore its diplomacy faces many complicated situations after its entry in the international relations. As a new subject of international community Slovakia tries to be active in all fields of international life. The Slovak can fulfill their functions of the Slovak diplomacy at their best. (SOI : MO: S. 305)

In the current issue of international relations we bring readers an interview with Professor Peter Drulak. It follows on interviews with important figures in the field of international relations, which we published in 2010 and 2011 Petr Drulak is a researcher at the Institute of International Relations (DPE), where from 2004-2013 he worked as a director. He teaches at the Department of International Relations at the Institute of Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. Monograph is the author of several textbooks including the first Czech Theories of International Relations (Drulak 2003) and political research methodology (Drulak 2008a). He published many scientific articles and chapters focusing on international relations theory, European integration and the Czech foreign policy. In his last book, Politics disinterest (Drulak 2012) is devoted crisis policy in the Czech Republic and the West. In 2000-2004 he was chief editor of International Relations, is currently a member of the editorial board. Adapted from the source document.

Eritrea becoming independent, with the consent of Ethiopia, was considered a unique event on a continent that has experienced so many wars about the right to self-rule. However there are elements in Ethiopia's political mosaic that can never accept Eritrea independence. ... From the historical point of view there should be no doubt that the territory of today's Eritrea was a part of Ethiopians' kingdoms. However for more than 60 years since 1890 Eritrea was under the foreign rule. Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia in 1952, but when in 1962 the federation was dissolved and the province was annexed by Haile Selassie, guerrilla war broke out and continued also during the dictatorship of M. H. Mariam (1974-1991). ... He two countries are among the poorest in Africa, but both Ethiopia and Eritrea are reportedly engaged in buying as much arms as their poor economies can afford from countries such as Russian Federation, China, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. ... Both countries have close military relationships with the United States and Israel who have a strategic interest in keeping them as stable allies close to the Arabian peninsula and bordering Sudan. ... The International community calls for an end to the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The United Nations, the European Union, African leaders and U.S. government have aIl pleaded for restraint and immediate stop of military confrontation. ... In reality, neither side seems interested abandoning the military option for resolving the border issue. (SOI : MO: S. 46-48)

The article documents the process of the increase in the relevance of fundamental rights in the European Union and calls attention to the fact that it is gradually approaching an important point whose attainment would have a considerable impact on the nature of the EU. The text traces the development of the EU's powers and activities in setting the norms related to fundamental rights, and deciding about their application, control and enforcement. The states have been reluctant to permit the Union to intervene into their domestic human rights affairs which are not connected to the EU's competences. Nevertheless, its recent activities indicate that the EU is starting to get more say even in this cautiously guarded domain of domestic competence. Adapted from the source document.

In 2004 Lithuania implemented its two most important foreign policy goals -- became the member of the European Union & NATO. However, the country will now have to assert its status & position in the Euroatlantic community of liberal democracies. Lithuania faces an arguably more complex agenda, which has no clear end-goals or deadlines. The security challenges are difficult to identify & predict. The global & European strategic environment is best characterized by an ever-growing uncertainty: the transatlantic relations continue to be tense, Russia, paradoxically, is balancing between perspective of disintegration & re-emerging as an expansionist imperial power, & the European Union is under- going one of the most severe internal crisis in decades. At the same time, the major schools of international relations theory disagree on what to make out of the current world politics. Rationalist, neorealist authors tend to give alarmist, apocalyptic accounts of the future of the nation states if they despise the iron logic of geopolitics, whereas reflectivist, constructivist authors argue that the world is "what we make of it," & thus, can be changed. These two visions of international relations inevitably lead to different policy implications. The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the authors address the current state of affairs in the two schools of international relations: rationalism (neorealism) & reflectivism (constructivism). In the second part, the authors interchangeably explore & compare the policy options that can be derived from the two different worldviews. The article concludes that international politics for a small state are more complex than either of the schools would suggest. Although the nature of the world politics is increasingly postmodern, a lot of actors still live in a modern world of geopolitics. Lithuanian decision makers will therefore have to "play" in accordance with postmodern rules when possible, but to remember geopolitics if necessary. Grounding their view on theoretical synthesis of constructivist & realist approaches to foreign policy, The authors asserts, that Lithuania's Euroatlantism should overshadow all other interests & problems of the society. The membership in the EU will have far reaching & long term consequences on Lithuanian society -- the same cannot be said about membership in NATO, or relations with the US. Lithuania must internalize the EU as a part of its corporate identity -- Lithuania is a part of Europe's collective identity. Therefore, Lithuanian political elite should cease to consider Europe as an object of Lithuanian foreign policy, rather it should become conscious itself as a subject of European policy contributing to its formation. Adapted from the source document.

Critical security studies have become increasingly popular among Czech scholars, but most studies in this field are based on securitization theory and other discursive approaches to security analysis. This paper argues for broadening the scope of theoretical approaches to security studies and introduces International Political Sociology as a promising strand of research in this respect. International Political Sociology is based on the study of security as practice, and offers a more complex understanding of how security is constructed and performed. The article discusses the theoretical roots of this approach, reviews the main strands of contemporary International Political Sociology research, and introduces its analytical tools. Finally, the paper critically reflects on the theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects of International Political Sociology and outlines possible avenues for this research in the Central European context. Adapted from the source document.

One of the biggest critiques for the constructivism in international relations discipline is the accusations of abstractiveness and having little substantive to say when talking about world politics. The article asserts that constructivism is not the typical theory of international relations or foreign policy analysis. Constructivism in the discipline is what every constructivist researcher makes of it, using a few fundamental statements about the analysis of social reality. In order to show how the constructivist international relations researchers apply the fundamental principles of the constructivist analysis of social reality to form their models of analysis, firstly, the article explains the metatheoretical assumptions of constructivism and the main problems that emerge trying to apply them in empirical research. Secondly, analysing three fundamental statements of metatheoretical constructivism (on intersubjective construction of meanings, relationship of ideas and materiality, and mutual constitutive relation of structure and agency) it is demonstrated how they are transformed and applied in more particular theoretical and empirical works of international politics. In the end several recommendation are provided on the main principles of constructivist research in international relations. Adapted from the source document.