Suchergebnisse

The book 'International Relations and the European Union: Values before Power' treats the role, status, and nature of the European Union in contemporary international relations, with special emphasis on the value corpus and potential of the European Union in relation to other actors on the global political stage. In this context, the operationalization and rationalization of the nature of the European Union, i.e. its postmodern determination and the deeply planted modern core, composed of 27 sovereign member states, is being established. The book also analyzes the institutional and political architecture of the Lisbon Treaty, especially in the area of EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, as well as the legal implications of this Treaty for the further development and transformation of the EU into a political union. Consequently, elitism and parochialism are identified as the key obstacles for further development of the European Union as a coherent and effective political union. Furthermore, the possible development perspectives of the European integration process in the future are presented, with special emphasis on the concept of an 'avant-garde Europe'. The book also discusses the status and role of the EU in relation to the BRICS grouping and their external and internal value capacity, in the context of the contemporary international liberal order, taking into account the new global deviations, such as the rise of populism and illiberalism in Europe and the world. Immediately after that, the EU's relations with China are analyzed, taking into account the Chinese 'project of the century', embodied in the 'Belt and Road Initiative', considered as a process of expansion of Chinese influence in the global context. In the context of the EU's establishment as an actor in international relations, special attention is paid to the imperial past of its member states, especially since out of 27 EU member states, 10 of them are former colonial empires. Hence, conclusions are drawn about the possibilities for deepening the cooperation between the EU member states with their former colonies (today sovereign states), but this time in the favor of the European Union global goals and interests. Finally, the book analyzes the EU's projections on the creation of a new, post-American international context, according to its 'ideological baggage' composed of the values of multilateralism, regionalism, and institutional creativity, as a 'community of values', firmly constituted on the power of law, instead of on the right of force.

This paper presents the basic premises of China as an emerging global actor with all its specificities of civilization-state. The Chinese civilization has an essential and complex body. It is this feeling of civilizational grandeur that generates a conviction in Chinese greatness. Special emphasis is given to the new global strategy of China, as a doctrine of President Xi Jinping. This new strategy is especially highlighted through the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) as the biggest project of the century and its 17+1 framework. The direct investment of China in countries around the world, appear as a latent and hegemonic instruments for the expansion of its political influence. Both, the BRI and the 17+1 framework represent triggers for achieving the Chinese global ambition.

Le sujet intitulé « L'évolution de la Constitution - le système juridique et politique de la République de Macédoine de l'indépendance à nos jours» - c'est un résumé juridico-politique des développements dans le système juridique et politique de la République de Macédoine. Plus précisément, il s'agit de localiser et de présenter les principaux changements, les problèmes et les défis auxquels a été confrontée la République Macédoine dans un contexte historique à partir de 1991 et l'adoption de la première constitution d'un Etat indépendant, souverain et démocratique de Macédoine, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, dans un environnement politique complètement changé face aux défis qui subsistent. À cet égard, cette présentation est fondée sur l'analyse des fondamentaux pour l'adoption de la Constitution macédonienne de 1991, et surtout les efforts et les procédures mise à niveau ou la modification graduelle par les amendements, la transformation et le développement constitutionnel de la République de Macédoine dans le sens juridique et politique.

The paper at hand provides an overview of key features of the Sino-European relations. Its aim is to determine the state of play and possible perspectives. The main topics are China as a rising power, its role in international relations, and its global aspirations by means of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 17+1 Cooperation framework. Additionally, the EU and its weaknesses in its relations to China and the challenges arising from a changed international context are discussed. The paper also identifies parameters for the security and protection of EU interests at a normative and political level, which should serve as basic assumptions for building a unified position of the EU towards China, based on the principle of reciprocity.

This chapter explores the key features of the concept of postnationalism, its modes, and theoretical implications regarding the European Union. The main research intention is to explore the EU as a model and an agent for reconciliation of the Balkan region. For that purpose, the main operative elements of both the South East European Cooperation Process and "Yugosphere" are examined. At the end, it is concluded that the emulation of EU postnational model by the Balkan countries enables the process of reconciliation. Hence, the Balkan states seems to be "forced" to cooperate with each other, in order to achieve their common objective – their full integration into the EU, which strongly confirms the role of the EU as an agent for reconciliation of the Balkans.

The "Decline of Europe" thesis, at least as far as the EU and its further development are concerned, is largely provoked by several circumstances, including the debt crisis and the Eurozone crisis, the migrant problem, and the EU's institutional underdevelopment and democratic deficit. Regarding the latter, it is important to emphasize that after the "collapse" of the Constitutional Treaty and the creation of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has failed to provide a functional institutional base for its further development. On the contrary, through the Treaty of Lisbon, it only "connotes" its status as a "political dwarf and military worm".

This article investigates the challenges of the liberal democracy in the new international context, provoked by the emergence of the new great powers (Russia and China), and especially the establishment of the BRICS grouping in the world political scene. Namely, this article 'clashes' the both paradigms of BRICS and the EU, in order to conclude their performances in relation to the values of liberal democracy. In that context, especially is stressed the liberal axiological set of the EU, as a postmodern entity, with typical soft power in the international relations. The EU soft power stems from its axiological set, which predominantly is composed by the values of liberal democracy. The new international context is characterised by the establishment of liberal and illiberal actors. The IR theorists treated the USA and the EU as main represents of the liberal democracy, whilst Russia and China, as illiberal democracies, or simply, autocracies. This article concludes the forthcoming challenges of the liberal democracy in the new international context, as well as the place, role and the international political capacity of the EU, in relation to its mission for safeguarding and advancement of the liberal democratic values.

The post-accession evolution of the new Member States to the European Union benefits from limited attention in the EU studies literature. More scholarly works are needed to map the performance of Romania and Bulgaria. Therefore, this paper investigates Romania's performance during the six-month Council Presidency to the European Union in the first half of 2019. Building on the framework of analysis of Karolewski et al., the paper makes an empirical contribution. It seeks to analyze if Romania lived up to the challenges of the office and managed to consolidate its reputation and show its political maturity during this crucial political moment, which countries only get to play every twelve years. The paper argues that the Romanian government aimed to project the image of an active, dynamic, and efficient actor, consensus orientated but without significant policy ambitions. It was a test it wanted to pass to confirm that Romania no longer represents an exceptional case in terms of its laggardness.

The question of the correlation between Islam, political Islam and liberal democracy has so far been the most exposed topic in exploring the democratic capacity of political Islam and Islamic societies in general. What is particularly intriguing about the relationship between political Islam and liberal democracy is the fact of its westernized triviality that has received a pejorative tone in Islamic political circles. Simplified, the triviality of liberal democracy for the Islamic political campus implies imposing a model of democracy that cannot be fully compatible with the original Muslim notion of society and government. Hence, the following paper analyzes exactly the relations of political Islam to specific inherent categories of liberal democracy such as the rule of law, representative government, the separation of powers and secularism as a diferenta specifica of liberal western democratic discourse. Through the methods of induction and deduction, the author will illustrate how appropriate tangent or divergence is illustrated and how this is reflected in the general ideological positioning of political Islam towards liberal democracy in Muslim countries through an axiological and praxeological perspective.

Starting in Wuhan in December 2019, all the way to Rome and New York in April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had put the states, alliances and others, towards a serious challenge. However, the question that happened to be a stumbling block this time has never been posed as a problem or obstacle before - the question of public health; the question that has taught the European Union a lesson about what is a top priority and how all the other policies, plans and strategies may seem unimportant overnight. This paper provides an analysis on how the European Union coped with the global threat giving its limited legal possibilities, and the unprecedented situation of its Member States, becoming the second outbreak point of the pandemic. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic, once again, opened the question of solidarity and the coherence within the EU. The conclusions drawn from this research are of great importance in a way to show whether the EU will come out of this situation with a positive outcome, confirming its values of solidarity and coherence, or it will have to undertake drastic reforms, in order to consolidate the latter.

The following paper analyzes an issue that is one of the elemental and underlying causes of the bitter problem of hate speech that is raging across Europe. Islamophobia, as one of the most prevalent causes of hate speech and hate crimes, necessitates the essential study of its ideological coloring. Hence, the author's intention, through methods of induction, deduction, and comparison, is to present precisely its political narrative from an ideological perspective, while emphasizing its general determinants that reflect the common denominator that is related and adaptable in all European countries. On the other hand, the author will show how generic ideology through the political narrative of Islamophobia may be different in the countries of Western and Southeastern Europe, namely its roots, motives, sociopolitical conditions, and political and ideological orientations. Such components, complemented by an elaboration of the political ambiance of Islamophobia, that is, the general stereotypes about Muslims and hate crimes against Muslims in Europe constitute an integral content of this paper.

Starting the COVID-19 pandemic, physical and social distancing, besides wearing masks and frequent use of disinfectant, was and still is the most important preventive measure in stopping the spreading of the new coronavirus. Penitentiary institutions, especially the crowded ones, became a hard place to manage in stopping the infections. Why? Because these institutions are the ones where there is even more need to balance health protection with human rights. Using medical isolation and quarantine in the process of prevention of infections with SARS-CoV-2 virus, is complicated as result of the use of punitive solitary confinement as disciplinary sanction. The paper analyses the possible methods of protection of prisoners' health during COVID-19 pandemic with parallel protection and respect of their basic and guaranteed human rights.