Suchergebnisse

The article deals with the phenomenon of the naval blockade in peacetime. Instituting a naval blockade is an extensively used policy in international politics, both in history and in the contemporary world. The peacetime naval blockade is firstly defined and theoretically classified. This is followed by an analysis of several peacetime naval blockades, which serves to illustrate the limits of the effectiveness of such blockades. The analysis comes to the conclusion that there are many limitations on the effectiveness of the peacetime naval blockade, the most significant being that this kind of blockade has no formal rules and no background in international law. It also comes to the conclusion that an effective naval blockade in peacetime must be based on a complex approach and be part of a package of diplomatic measures. Also, it appears that such blockades themselves can have some deeper psychological effects, not only economic, political or military ones. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents a review of the currently debated options for regulations of activities of private military companies (PMCs). This topic is a matter of pondering in the foreign literature. It primarily reflects on the massive use of PMCs in Iraq and Afghanistan, which, however, merely illustrates the broader shortcomings resulting from the prolonged absence of clearly defined and enforceable mechanisms for the monitoring and control of the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of PMCs' activities. The goal of this article is therefore not only to present the practical, legal, economic, and political pros and cons of the possible regulation frameworks, but also to illustrate why it is still so difficult to reach a consensus on a regulation framework that would be acceptable to all the relevant actors. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents a comparison of three approaches to international justice. The first part of the article focuses on the realist paradigm, the second section analyzes various liberal approaches, and the third part presents the basic ideas of neomarxism. The largest part of the article is devoted to a critical discussion of existing liberal approaches -- liberal institutionalism (R. Keohane), political liberalism (J. Rawls), democratic liberalism (J. Habermas), globalist utilitarianism (P. Singer), globalist egalitarianism (Ch. Beitz, T. Pogge), and liberal impartialism (B. Barry). The article concludes by synthesizing the insights of the three broad normative positions into a realist, yet at the same time critical, liberalism. Adapted from the source document.

Due to the different and mutually incompatible interpretations of Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, there is still an ongoing dispute between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain on the question of the sovereignty of Gibraltar. In the United Kingdom's view, which is largely shared by legal scholars, Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht grants full and entire sovereignty over Gibraltar to the UK. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Spain argues that Article X yielded to the crown of Great Britain only the property of Gibraltar's castle, town and port. Sovereignty over Gibraltar, however, continued to be retained by the Spanish state. In spite of their disagreement, both states started negotiating a form of condominium at the beginning of the 21st century. In the end, they failed to achieve this goal, which seems to be incompatible with the UN General Assembly resolutions on the decolonization of Gibraltar. The people of Gibraltar, who are the third actor in the Spanish-British dispute, claim their own sovereignty and their right to self-determination. However, according to the UN General Assembly, the decolonization of Gibraltar requires as a precondition that the Kingdom of Spain and the UK solve their dispute on the question of sovereignty. Otherwise the decolonization of Gibraltar cannot occur. Both the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain are European Union members but their inter-state dispute under international law cannot be solved within the EU context. Thus, three hundred years after the signature of the Treaty of Utrecht, the future of Gibraltar remains completely unclear. Adapted from the source document.

The key argument of the presented text is the idea that the reform of the US security policy that started after 9/11; the US participation on counter-insurgency, stabilization and nation--building operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the big pressure on the domestic security structure led to a reorganization of the US security policy and a transformation of the domestic governance structures and practices according to the model of security governance. In an effort to defend the US against possible future terrorist attacks and formulate the robust counter-insurgency operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Government started to create a new model of security policy organization and integrate diplomacy, development and defense instruments. While security policy used to have a clear chain of command, security governance is marked by a non-linear, horizontal, and networked policy coordination. Adapted from the source document.

Arctic environmental protection and the protection of species living in the Arctic are subject to a number of multilateral international treaties, bilateral agreements, and instruments of soft law, and they are touched upon by the national laws of the Arctic coastal countries as well. Based on the theoretical approaches of Oran Young, the paper construes the current environmental protection in the Arctic as an international regime. The paper defines the basic features of the Arctic and Antarctic environmental regimes, such as duration, resilience, an institutional structure, internationalization and the agreed procedures and processes of the regime's development. The paper discusses whether their differences (e.g. ocean versus continent, inhabitants, military use) have been reflected in their environmental regimes. By comparing these features and regimes, the paper concludes that the procedure used in the Antarctic might not be fully transferrable to the case of the Arctic. Adapted from the source document.