Suchergebnisse

When researching multiculturalism and the process of Europeanisation in Serbia and countries of the region, one must first examine the status of multiculturality and multiculturalism, from the normative framework to states' policies which decidedly determine the nature and functioning of a political community. Starting from the fact that the context, nature and structure of a political community determines the essence of rights and freedoms stipulated by the constitution and laws, as well as that a synergy of good laws and sound policies enables an effective policy of multiculturality, integration and interlacing of cultures of diverse national communities in a society, the proclaimed multiculturalism was studied in this paper, with a view to ascertain whether such constitutional and legislative framework and policies exist, and if they did, whether there was concerted action between them. The key finding was that the states of the region support a civil state in principle, that they are exclusively or predominantly nationally legitimised by the highest legislative acts and that the factual state is marked by various national cultural identities that are not integrated into the model of plural citizenship. The paper shows that there is a lack of political will to transform the declared support for a pluralistic civil state into public policies affirming the values of multiculturalism, as well as that there is a lack of strong institutions to support such policy. Creating civil awareness, strengthening civil values and virtues are not priorities for state institutions or media controlled by governments. Rather than that, their priority is to strengthen national identities. Hence, based on the above, we can affirm that civil states, civil values and civil identities are only at initial stages, i.e. that they are still, only occasionally, at the level of general programme orientation and set aims. The necessary ingredient for their firm establishment is a consolidated democracy and acceptance of universal values of developed democracies, such as the rule of law and protection of human rights and freedoms.

Joint effect of 2008 economic crises and continous world-wide present deficite of political legitimacy have in 2011 given birth to global resistance, but also facilitated development of its new strategies and tactics. Aldough we are still by large able to understand these contemporary models of collective action with help of New Social Movement Theory, today they objectivelly grasp a wider field of meaning, mainly for reason of their demands for radical transformation of both economic and political system. Contemporary social movements are still struggling for re-interpretation of meaning, and identity issues, but not any more for any particular goal. Instead, they seek systemic change. This extremelly important shift of strategic orientation, which makes new movements a bit old – that is classical, remains in our oppinion, undervalued both in academic, and general public for the reasons that we will try to comprehend, in this writing. ; Sadejstvo udara ekonomske krize iz 2008. i kontinuiranog deficita političkog legitimiteta dovode 2011. do pojave globalnog otpora, ali i do razvoja njegovih kvalitativno novih strategija i taktika. Iako je savremene modele kolektivne akcije dobrim delom i dalje moguće razumeti uz pomoć teorije novih društvenih pokreta, oni danas objektivno zahvataju jedno šire polje, najpre zbog zahteva za radikalnom promenom u ukupnom ekonomskom i političkom sistemu. Savremeni društveni pokreti i dalje se bore za reinterpretaciju značenja i priznanje sopstvenog identiteta, ali ne više za bilo koje pojedinačno pitanje, već za sveobuhvatnu promenu sistema. Ta izuzetno važna promena strateške orijentacije, koja nove pokrete čini pomalo starim – upravo klasičnim, ostaje, čini nam se, nedovoljno primećena iz razloga koje ćemo pokušati da rasvetlimo.

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.

In this paper, we tried to analyze the consequences of the transitional process in the societies of the South-West Balkan, primarily on the example of Serbia. The indicators that we have found by the research clearly speak in favor of the fact that the transition is the cause of peripheralization of these societies. Citizens who entered the transitional processes with hope - imagining them as the accomplishment of the best European values - soon were convinced that the transition is only another manner to place these countries in the position to be exploited by multinational capital and developed, 'old' member of the EU, as well as to serve for squaring accounts in geopolitical games of the creators of the 'new world order'. In the case of the countries of the Western Balkan, the transition had the characteristic that, among other things, it was performed in conditions of political violence: destruction of the joint state of Yugoslavia, civil and religious war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, aggression of NATO to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, destabilization of Serbia through the attempt of Kosovo secession, etc., therefore, in the conditions that were extremely antihistorical. While the Europe was uniting, the Balkan was disintegrating. At least two out of the three 'ideas that conquered the world' (Mandelbaum) have been violated: the peace and the democracy. Free market in the conditions when there was no peace and regarding democratically insufficiently consolidated societies could not bring their progress, but on the contrary, as we established, only regression. That is the reason why the destroyed and collided South-Balkan societies, contrary to the European vow of their political elites, are today de facto much further from the European aspirations than they were quarter of the century ago. With their policy, the countries of the West have contributed to De- Europeanization of the South-West Balkan and strengthening of the Euroscepticism with citizens of those countries that still have not joined the EU, like Serbia. In fact, the citizens of Serbia can hardly recognize in the policy of the EU those values that have been usually considered European and which we mentioned at the beginning of this paper.

Harmonisation of the foreign policies of the Western Balkan states with the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the Charter 31 of the pre-accession negotiations will be a significant obligation and challenge for most of them. Within this context, the author takes as a starting point the regular annual reports on the progress achieved by the states in the region. They show the degree of harmonisation of their foreign policies with this Union's mechanism (within four years in the 2011-2014 period). The author of the article particularly points to the real and substantial discrepancy between the normative framework of the EU CFSP and the specific activities taken by the Western Balkan states in the part concerning their position to the current crisis in Ukraine which, in a way, 'reflects' the geo-strategic interests of the 'West', on one hand, and those of the Russian Federation, on the other. At the same time, he points to the membership in the North Atlantic Alliance as a favourable framework for the acceleration of harmonisation of a country's foreign policy with the EU CFSP.

Ova teza treba da istraži vezu između motiva, ciljeva i principa kanadske spoljno-političke agende, u odnosu na njen učinak na području očuvanja i izgradnje mira na Zapadnom Balkanu. Vremenski opseg obuhvata period od 1991. do 1999.godine. U vezi sa pojašnjenjem ovog pitanja, posebno se elaborira idejna osnova te spoljno-političke agende, zatim njeno formiranje kroz viziju međunarodne pozicije Kanade u međunarodnoj politici i na kraju kontekstualizacija te vizije u spoljno-političku misiju Kanade u regiji Zapadnog Balkana. Teza na teorijskom nivou uključuje istraživanje savremenih trendova u oblasti bezbjednosti, uticaja ideja na spoljnu politiku, proces kreiranja i realizacije spoljno-politikih strategija kao i istraživanje učinka spoljno-političkih akcija u kontekstu očuvanja i izgradnje mira. Naučni cilj ovog istraživanja je evaluacija učinka onog dijela kanadske agende ljudske bezbjednosti koji se odnosi na učešće u međunarodnim mirovnim misijama na Zapadnom Balkanu tokom devedesetih godina prošlog vijeka. Teza se zasniva na činjenici da kanadski pristup i doprinos regionalnoj bezbjednosti, posmatran iz ugla teorijskog pravca ljudske bezbjednosti, u regiji Zapadnog Balkana nije dovoljno istražen na naučnoj osnovi. To se posebno odnosi na učinak kanadskih snaga u okviru međunarodnih mirovnih misija u Hrvatskoj, BiH i na Kosovu, u odnosu na kanadsku agendu ljudske bezbjednosti. Naučni doprinos ovog rada bio bi u naučnoj sintezi međunarodno afirmisane agende ljudske bezbjednosti i njenoj kontekstualnoj primjeni kroz djelovanje kanadske mirovne misije u Regiji. Društveni doprinos ovog rada ogleda se u činjenici da se na temeljan način skreće pažnja stručnoj javnosti na kanadski doprinos izgradnji mira na Zapadnom Balkanu, na osnovama liberalnog internacionalizma. ; This thesis aims to explore the links among the motives, purposes and principles of the Canadian foreign policy agenda, with respect to its impact in the field of preserving and building peace in the Western Balkans. The timeframe covers the period from 1991 to1999. With regards to the clarification of this issue, particularly elaborated is the conceptual basis for this foreign policy agenda, then its shaping through the vision of the international position of Canada in the global politics and finally the contextualization of this vision into the Canadian foreign policy mission in the Western Balkans. On a theoretical level, the thesis includes the research into contemporary trends in the field of security, the impact of ideas on foreign policy, the development and implementation of foreign policy strategy, and it also explores the impact of foreign policy actions in the context of preserving and building peace. The scientific objective of this research is appraisal of the effect of that part of Canadian human security agenda relating to participation in international peacekeeping missions in the Western Balkans during the nineteen nineties. The thesis is based on the fact that the Canadian approach and contribution to regional security, observed from the perspective of the theoretical line of human security in the Western Balkans region has not been sufficiently explored from the scientific point of view. This is especially true of the effect of the Canadian troops in the international peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, in relation to the Canadian human security agenda. Scientific contribution of this work would be in the scientific synthesis of the internationally-established human security agenda and its application through contextual actions of Canadian peacekeeping mission in the region. The social contribution of this work is reflected in the fact that the attention is drawn to the expert public in a fundamental way to the Canadian contribution towards peacebuilding in the Western Balkans, on the bases of liberal internationalism.

EU Enlargement Policy, one of the newest EU policies created during the last decade of the 20th century, is facing a very difficult period of its development, similar to the challenges facing the EU today. This Policy has been under constant evolution on the basis of experiences with the new Member States, and it has been closely connected with the wider context of European Integration of the Member States. In this article we present an overview of the major challenges for the Union as well as for candidate countries and to point out that there is no good reason why, even in the crisis situation, enlargement should not be continued. It is, we argue, part of the solution to the problems of EU, and not yet another problem. ; Politika proširenja EU, jedna od novijih politika Unije nastala tokom devedesetih godina, u velikoj meri proživljava veoma težak period koji je opšte obeležje izazova sa kojima se danas suočava EU. Ona se tokom vremena konstantno uobličavala na osnovama iskustava sa novim članicama i uvek je bila u uskoj vezi sa širim kontekstom evropskih integracija država članica EU. U ovom članku smo pokušali da prikažemo osnovne izazove za Uniju, ali i za države kandidate regiona Zapadnog Balkana, i da ukažemo da nema nijednog valjanog razloga zašto, čak i uslovima krize u EU, nastavak proširenja ne bi trebalo da bude posmatran kao deo rešenja, a ne kao deo problema.

Slobodan protok roba, usluga, ljudi i kapitala, razvoj informacione i komunikacione tehnologije, učinili su da lokalni problemi postanu globalni. Finansijska kriza 2007. godine vrlo brzo je postala globalna. Pandemija kovida-19 izazvala je svetsku zdravstvenu krizu, koja je ubrzo prerasla u ekonomsku, uz pretnju da postane i društvena kriza. Makroekonomski troškovi pandemije ogledaju se u padu bruto domaćeg proizvoda (GDP), rastu nezaposlenosti, povećanju fiskalne i eksterne neravnoteže. Fiskalna politika je u svim zemljama bila okosnica ekonomske politike u borbi protiv posledica pandemije. Ono što se sa sigurnošću može reći je da je šok pandemije pogodio ekonomiju i sa strane agregatne tražnje i sa strane agregatne ponude. U radu pokušavamo da sagledamo kako je pandemija delovala na privrede zemalja Zapadnog Balkana, sa kolikim privrednim padom su se suočile u 2020. godini. U radu takođe analiziramo koliko su javni sektor, zdravstvo i obrazovanje bili efikasni u borbi protiv posledica pandemije. ; The free flow of goods, services, people and capital, and the development of information and communication technology have all made local problems global. The 2007 financial crisis very quickly became global. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide health crisis, which quickly became an economic one, with threats of becoming a social one as well. The macroeconomic costs of the pandemic are visible in the form of shrinking GDP, the rise of unemployment, as well as fiscal and external imbalance. In all countries fiscal policy was the cornerstone of economic policy in the fight against the consequences of the pandemic. What we can say for certain is that the shock of the pandemic hit the economy both from the aspect of aggregate demand, as well as aggregate supply. In this paper we take a look at how the pandemic affected the economies of the Western Balkan countries, and the scale of the economic downturn they will face in 2020. We will also analyze how effective the public sector, the medical system, and education have been in the fight against the consequences of the pandemic.

Postsocijalističke privrede su početkom devedesetih godina dvadesetog veka započele tranziciju u kapitalistički sistem i intenzivnije uključivanje u procese globalizacije. Region Zapadnog Balkana je u tom periodu bio zahvaćen političkom i društvenom nestabilnošću koja se nepovoljno odrazila na ekonomske reforme i međunarodnu poziciju zemalja regiona. Glavni problem sa kojim su se zemlje regiona Zapadnog Balkana suočile bio je tehnološko zaostajanje i nedostatak domaće akumulacije. Preovladao je stav da će priliv stranih direktnih investicija pokrenuti ekonomski rast i tehnološku modernizaciju proizvodnje i omogućiti uspešno uključivanje u procese globalizacije. Kako bi se unapredila međunarodna konkurentnost zemalja Zapadnog Balkana, završetak tranzicionih reformi je označen kao prioritetan korak. Predmet istraživanja disertacije je teorijsko razmatranje i empirijsko utvrđivanje efekata tranzicije i globalizacije na konkurentnost zemalja Zapadnog Balkana tokom prve dve decenije XXI veka. U sprovedenom istraživanju, jedanaest privreda Centralne i Istočne Evrope je iskorišćeno kao osnov za poređenje i tumačenje rezultata za pet zemalja Zapadnog Balkana. Empirijski rezultati u disertaciji pokazuju statistički značajan pozitivan uticaj tranzicije i globalizacije na unapređenje konkurentnosti zemalja regiona Zapadnog Balkana. ; Post-socialist states began the transition process to a capitalism and more intensive integration in the processes of globalization in the early 1990s. During that period, the Western Balkans region was affected by political and social instability, which adversely reflected to economic reforms and the international position of the countries in the region. The main problem the countries of the Western Balkans region faced was technological stagnancy and a lack of domestic accumulation. The prevailing view is that foreign direct investment inflows will drive economic growth and technological modernization of production and enable successfully integration this group of countries in the processes of globalization. In order to improve the international competitiveness of the Western Balkan countries, the finishing of transition reforms has been identified as a priority step. The subject of the PhD thesis is theoretical consideration and empirical determination of the effects of transition and globalization on the competitiveness of the Western Balkan countries during the first two decades of the 21st century. In the research that carried out, eleven economies of Central and Eastern Europe were used as a base for comparing and interpreting the results of the Western Balkans countries. Empirical results obtained in the researching part of the doctoral dissertation show a statistically significant positive impact of transition and globalization on improving the competitiveness of the states of the Western Balkans region.