Suchergebnisse

In turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many challenges to a country's international reputation. During the pandemic, Sweden, especially in its first stage, was frequently presented by international media outlets, sometimes negatively. Such adverse reporting may have imposed some reputational threats on Sweden. This research aims to investigate Swedish communication through a short-term perspective of public diplomacy (its day-to-day dimension) with the foreign public during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was based on qualitative content analysis of official statements made by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Swedish Institute's Instagram account, and interviews with the Swedish Institute employees. The main argument of this research is that in Sweden, day-to-day communication within PD served as a tool supporting the crisis management process. The research question refers to whether Sweden, through the activity of the Swedish Institute, used some elements of its public diplomacy conduct to react to the coronavirus pandemic. The hypothesis states that the day-to-day dimension of public diplomacy can be associated with the crisis management process.

The People's Republic of China is one of the states focusing intensively on building its soft power and shaping its international image. However, China's image is still negative and primarily based on stereotypes. In recent years, this country is willing to change such perceptions and present itself as an efficient, intensively developing, capable country that is much more than just a global production plant. The article aims to review China's different manifestations of development aid regarding changing this type of public diplomacy and its meaning to the Chinese government. Is it only motivated by good intentions, or maybe its goal is to only provide an advantage to China? It is evident that owing to significant development, China needs to expand its economic contacts. However, the tested hypothesis states that behind Chinese development aid, political motivation is hidden as well. The research is based on content analysis of official documents and Foreign Ministry's statements referring to development aid.

The Łódź PPSY International Seminar Transitional Justice: Between Redemption and Retribution was the first scientific event co-organized by the Chair of International Law and International Relations (Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Łódź), Research Centre of University of Łódź "The Balkans at the Turn of the 20th and the 21st Century", Professor Czesław Mojsiewicz International Cooperation Fund, Adam Marszałek Publishing House and the Editorial Board of the Polish Political Science Yearbook. The idea that stood behind the organization of the academic seminar was to analyse the current scientific and practical trends witnessed in a global discourse on transitional justice. Deliberations on post-violence efforts and all closely related topics, especially the issue of politics of memory, gathered in the Polish city of Łódź 20 researchers, coming from 7 Polish universities and 8 foreign academic centres. It is worth mentioning that participants of the seminar represented 9 different countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Sudan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Germany is an example of a country which has been implementing transitional justice for decades and is still active in this field. What is more, contemporary Germans have recently come to terms with their not-so-distant past and their negligence in this area by showing the falsehood, backwardness, and injustice as negative foundations of the young Federal Republic. This article evokes the person of Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor in the state of Hessen. His struggle for human dignity and the memory of his achievements after his death exemplify an accomplished case of transitional justice and the memory of it. During his lifetime he contributed to bringing to trial numerous Nazi criminals, even at the cost of habitual threats and disregard. Forgotten for a few decades, Bauer and his legacy have been recently rediscovered and studied. Eventually, Bauer became a movie character and was finally brought back to the collective memory of Germans. The belated, but a well-deserved wave of popularity of Fritz Bauer in the German culture memory proves that reflections on the transitional justice are still topical and important.

The main aim of the paper is to analyse the potential transitional justice mechanisms, directed at reintegration of Donbas, a territory temporarily occupied by pro-Russian separatists, being under the combination of a direct and indirect control of Kremlin, with Ukraine. In the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and a remove of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych as a consequence of Euromaidan protests held in Kyiv, in the Winter 2013/14, Ukraine became a state involved in the international armed conflict covering its Eastern provinces as a result of an external aggression of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, since early-2014, Moscow is continuously using pro-Russian militants to form and uphold unrecognised, de facto regimes of the so-called 'Donetsk' and 'Luhansk People's Republic(s)' affecting the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. It is argued that Kyiv shall take into consideration some of the peace and restoration models applied in similar conflict or post-conflict environments, such as the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) or the experience of numerous disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programs, filled with the transitional justice component. Moreover, by emphasising the context of a military (semifrozen) conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the paper is going to shed more light on the possible application of transitional justice tool-kit in the ongoing conflicts scenarios and its potential contribution to the shift from a conflict to the postwar environment.

The aim of the article is to examine whether Nordic area can be regarded as a homogenous and successfully cooperating region, which is providing one unified political front. Considering many similarities between Nordic states, as for example shared values (equality, women rights, common love of democracy, peace and welfare state), one could say that Nordic states constitute a single and unitary area. What is more, the linguistic, cultural and historical closeness of those states is a fact, but at the same time many differences can be pointed, especially considering their security and foreign policies. Those aspects seem to be the main obstacle in introducing full cooperation in the region. Nevertheless, it is worth noticing that current international developments and appearance of new threats to security are influencing the Nordic states which, as a result, are changing their attitudes towards security policy. Those factors could lead to introducing new dimensions of their cooperation.

The paper is presenting the examination of the cyberwarfare phenomenon in its legal context. The cyberattacks are increasingly effective measures of modern combat and would probably become the most crucial dimension of forthcoming armed conflict. The role of the international humanitarian law is to determine whenever the cyberattack is reaching the threshold of an armed conflict. The aim of the article is to present the existing framework of ius in bello in terms of its temporal scope of applicability, especially in the light of the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. It supported conclusion that the international law requires an revision of the armed conflict definition to sufficiently addressed the challenges arising from growing cyber activity.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the image of Yugoslavia in the collective memories of the post–Yugoslav societies. The author of this text, basing on an assumption that every society has a great number of collective memories, highlights the fact that among the Balkan nations one can find both supporters and opponents not only of the SFRY but also of the idea of the cooperation among the Southern Slavs. Both positive and negative opinions of Yugoslavia in the collective memories are based not on the sober assessment of the historical facts but on collective emotions and historical and political myths. The anti–Yugoslav discourse in primarily based on the national mythology. The discourse of the supporters of the Yugoslav tradition one the other hand, goes back in a large extend to the transnational myths. By discussing these two types of ideas about Yugoslavia, the author of this text tries to show their impact on the current political decisions.

Urban movements are nowadays a frequent example of civic activity. They are becoming an inseparable element of both contemporary democracy as well as local governments. Taking into consideration the fact of growing popularity of this kind of civic activity it is worth to analyze the specifics of this phenomena and possible future impact on local governments' policy. The aim of this article is to examine the urban movements' phenomena and their actual possible influence on local governments' policy directions.

Europe, slowly but surely, appears to be recovering from one of the most damaging financial crises ever, but still our continent dangles in a sort of political suspension. The "Eastern Enlargement" from 2004 has been digested badly by the European Union. Currently, we are witnessing an overwhelming shortage of common ideas for the Community consisting of the twenty eight Member States, which is striking and, is in fact a grievous phenomenon. A number of exclusive political and economic initiatives realized beyond the institutional skeleton of the Union evolve, at least partially, into disruption of pure solidarity and rudimentary concord among nations. The multi-tier Europe, evidently faltering at a political crossroads, is gradually rising from the diff erentiation of the Community and, in consequence, presupposes some kind of socio-political and economic Centre and Periphery.

On 26–27th October 2011 at the University of Lodz Training and Conference Centre there took place an international conference "On the Empire Rumble: Toward New Political, Socio-Economical and International Order in Central and Eastern Europe", organized by the Chair of Political Science, Institute of Political Science Faculty of International Studies and Political Science's.

The article aims to, first, critically assess the idea and practice of deliberative democracy and, second, find it a proper place in the democratic theory. I start with defining the concept as it emerges from the works of some of its most prominent proponents (such as Fishkin, Cohen or Habermas), reiterating several of the important arguments in support of it. I then present various criticisms of deliberative democracy, regarding philosophical assumptions that inform it (the idea of common good, the conditions of rational deliberation etc.) and its modus operandi (its alleged procedural superiority over aggregative methods). I then off er further criticism of deliberative democracy as a model of democracy, an alternative to the dominant model of representative democracy, arguing from its ineff ectiveness in influencing political decisions. Instead, in the final section, I propose to establish deliberation as one of the two criteria of classifi cation and assessment of democratic systems, thus restoring its importance in the democratic theory.

The meaning of dialogue can differ. In a very narrow sense it is defined as a reciprocal conversation between two or more persons. However from scientific point of view it should be first of all understood as an universal value, one of the most important premises for social actions. Dialogue should be than seen either as a form of bilateral or multilateral relations on global or regional scale or as a method of reaching political decisions inside the political system, functioning as a stabilizing factor. A constructive dialogue is constituted by three basic rules: rule of mutual understanding; rule of mutual respect; rule of integrity of each side's convictions and behavior. Coexistence of these aspects creates practical mechanisms for solving problems of human condition, civilization threats and social and cultural conflicts in a globalized world.

In December 2017 and January 2018, the Sejm and Senate, thanks to the votes of the deputies of ruling party Law and Justice, passed hugely controversial law amending inter alia Polish Electoral Code. Its adoption was opposed by the parliamentary opposition, by the electoral administration bodies and by many experts, however unsuccessfully. The enactment of this law destabilises the electoral system without a clear or evident need and treats the electoral code as a political instrument. Secondly, it does not provide the sufficient time for adaptation (vacatio legis), which may jeopardise free and fair local elections and the stability of the political system. Thirdly, the bill contains numerous unclear provisions and is in many parts written in a careless and contradictory way. Such amendments do not correspond with the European standards, described in the Venice Commission's Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters.