Suchergebnisse

This book intends to make NI more accessible and viable, especially as a critical device for better understanding contemporary politics. The purpose is to refresh the debate on NI and to explore this fascinating concept, appreciating its multifaceted and malleable nature. Throughout time, NI has been presented as an ambiguous but obstinate concept in politics, political discourse, and theoretical elaboration. NI has constantly resurfaced, and many designate themselves as its protectors. Its increasing relevance, pertinence and recurrence make it clear that it can no longer be ignored in political analysis. Serena Giusti is Head of the Programme on Eastern Europe and Russia at SantAnna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, and Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for International Studies in Milan.

The article considers how Russia has reacted to the pandemic, especially in terms of foreign policy. Although internally the management of the pandemic has led to a further limitation of citizens' freedoms, externally it has been exploited to improve the country's image and strengthen its leverage through tactical activism and political generosity. Russia's strategy has been articulated in two phases: first, immediate aid to countries in need in order to channel the idea of a benevolent state, directly or indirectly discrediting other countries or organisations; second, the geopolitical use of vaccines. The article stresses the relationship between science and foreign policy and analyses Russia's health diplomacy strategy, underscoring its opportunities and challenges through the analysis of two case studies (Italy and Belarus). From a methodological perspective, the article mainly refers to foreign policy analysis (FPA), using concepts such as soft power, health diplomacy, and geopolitics.

While in the EU's Mediterranean countries inequality is mostly linked to the social sphere, and in particular refers to labour market dynamics, in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) area the situation is more complicated as the social and private spheres overlap and cultural and religious factors have a great impact on women's autonomy and opportunities beyond the family perimeter. The different challenges women are facing on the two sides of the Mediterranean have sometimes led to incomprehension and misperceptions. Western-supported policies devoted to closing the gap between men and women in the Southern Mediterranean area have overlooked those countries' peculiarities, simply exporting models tailored for EU's member states. The EU's attempts to strengthen relations with the Mediterranean countries on a multilevel basis have not rescued women from marginalization. Nevertheless, during the 2011 awakening, women played an important role in activating civil society and they are still to play a role in the modernization of their countries.

Moving from the analysis of the EU's actions in the Ukrainian crisis, this article aims at opening a reflection on certain traditional taxonomies such as civilian, normative and transformative power that have shaped the debate on both the EU ontology and its external manifestation.1 While the peculiarity of the development of European integration might have quite spontaneously produced a normative power, on the external front the application of this power requires a political drive. The recent policies – ENP, EaP – promulgated to stabilize and restructure the EU's neighbourhood through the diffusion of norms have undoubtedly geopolitical implications. It is not yet clear whether these policies are simply replicating the enlargement rationale (although not contemplating membership), or, rather, they are part of a power politics project dissimulated under a normative veil. The EU responded to Russia's aggressiveness in an 'unreflective' way, a procession of 'patterned actions' with limited efficacy. The EU's performance in Ukraine reveals both a lack of analytical capacity in the elaboration of policies directed to the neighbourhood and of tactical planning for facing up to the consequences of those policies.

Il contributo analizza la politica estera della Russia nei confronti del proprio vicinato mettendone in evidenza obiettivi e strumenti