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Nowadays, energy security is a growing concern in state foreignpolicy. Interdependency in the energy field is a very important dimensionof contemporary relations between states and transnational corporations.Energy security is becoming a key issue for the European Union (EU). TheUnion is one of the world's fastest-growing energy markets and the biggestimporter of energy resources. For the foreseeable future, Europe's energydependence will probably increase. Facing a shortage of energy, Europe isdependent on imports and the EU member states need to diversify their energysupplies. The Caspian region contains some of the largest undevelopedoil and gas reserves in the world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, thenewly independent Caspian states became open to foreign investment. Thegrowing energy needs have given the EU a strong interest in developing tieswith energy-producing states in the Caspian region to build the necessarypipeline infrastructure. In this analysis, the pipeline infrastructure that exists orwill be built in the near future will be presented. The analysis will concentrateon routes transporting gas from the Caspian region and the most importantproblems and solutions in designing the midstream energy system in the region.The key aim of the article is to analyse the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC)infrastructure project, which will inevitably contribute to the EU's energy securityinterest.

Energy security is a sine qua non condition for functioning and development of the economy of individual countries. The presented analysis concerns the issues of energy security of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine from the perspective of importers and transit countries of crude oil in the infrastructural dimension. The aim of the article is to answer the question: which direction to develop the strategic transmission infrastructure in the transit countries in order to ensure energy security?
Literature research on the subject and a comparative analysis shows that from the perspective of these countries, one of the most important determinant of their energy security is the strategic transmission infrastructure that allows for the diversification of the supplier's sources and directions. However, the implementation of this strategy requires coordinated and consistent political actions as part of an international strategy.

Chinese Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is not only an economic or political project, but also has the potential to transform the international system. The initiative's impact is large – from stimulating the financing of infrastructure investments in various countries around the world to the development of new global supply chains. The scientific goal of the article is to analyze the consequences of implementing the initiative. The research problem is included in the following question: does the Belt and Road Initiative contribute to increasing Chinese influence in the world and carries the risk of driving poorer countries into the ―debt trap‖? The conclusion from the article is that China should create an improved version of the BRI initiative based on a better risk assessment of the current projects. Infrastructure investments, if not carefully implemented and controlled, may lead to consequences, such as increasing the debt of some countries in the long term.

After 1864 the cities of the Kingdom of Poland went through a lot of changes which can be defined with the word 'modernization'. It refers to various spheres of reality, from economic, through social, and, finally, to cultural processes; it also concerns everyday life, which can be understood as material surroundings of an individual, communication, infrastructure and urban space, entertainment and free time. Using the press from that time, it is possible to trace some of the aspects of the modernization processes, the speed with which it occurred, and the relationship with the centre. The example of Lublin presents some characteristic trends of the provincial cities: following in the footsteps of Warsaw with a few-year delay, but also the problems (e.g. financial ones in the case of infrastructure or the required entertainments), which became common in the provinces; it is a fact that the material things spread faster than attitudes and some top-down activities associated with introduction of standardization, norms, and regulations in various spheres of life.

China's soft-power practice in its international activity boils down to four areas: culture, education, diplomacy, and economy. The most important element of China's soft-power policy seems to be the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Announced in 2013, the BRI is a complex, long-term and large-scale strategic political and economic project by the Chinese government with an infrastructure character. In this way, China is seeking to invest its capital surpluses in resurrecting the ancient Silk Road to create railroad and maritime networks with its most important trading partner – the European Union. In these circumstances, in September 2015, the presidents of Central and Eastern EU member states announced the establishment of the separate Three Seas Initiative (TSI), a political and economic project bringing together 12 EU states, including 11 'new' members and Austria. These entities constitute an informal bloc of states between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas, though without a permanent secretariat but with rotating leadership. In addition to the lack of a formal structure, the TSI region, located mainly in the EU's eastern part, is characterized by a weaker infrastructure network than Western Europe, lower GDP (except Austria), and high dependence on gas supplies from Russia (except Croatia). To overcome these disparities, the TSI has developed a catalogue of 48 investment priorities in three economic areas: energy, transport, and digitalisation. China's soft-power policy towards the 'new' EU members may be decided by the American patronage of the TSI and the fact that one of the flagship projects is the North-South Gas Corridor, which will enable the sale of American LNG in Central Europe, which has been dependent on gas supplies from Russia, China's partner in the BRI. In the context of the US-China trade war, White House planners recognise Central Europe as both a peripheral and key area for their policy and seek to strengthen the Three Seas project, which may lead to limiting areas of cooperation under the '17+1' format, involving CEE countries and China. On the other hand, the development of better energy, transport and digital connections in the EU's east clearly intersects with China's idea of building a New Eurasian Land Bridge under the BRI to connect the most economically developed edges of Eurasia. The new US strategy towards the countries of the CEE seems to boil down to involvement in specific energy-related projects. Instead of blocking or diminishing BRI-related infrastructure projects in China, they seem in fact to complement the Chinese activity in the CEE. Increased investment by American enterprises in the region may allow the administration in Washington to maintain control of Chinese infrastructure investments, and the US involvement may even lead to the participation of American companies in projects originally started by Beijing.

A military presence on the territory of the Republic of Belarus is highly significant for the Russian Federation geopolitically. Russia is very particular about having buffer zones, client and neighbouring states with limited sovereignty on its borders. The aim of this article is to analyse the specificity of the Russian Federation's military presence in Belarus. In the following article, two hypotheses have been verified using factor analysis. Firstly, sustaining control over the territory of Belarus is of particular importance for the military safety of Russia, while at the same time, it detrimentally affects the stability of the Central and Eastern Europe countries. Secondly, the Russian Federation does not have a permanent military base within Belarusian territory and its military presence is solely confined to the use of military and transport infrastructure, which is indispensable for rapid accommodation and deployment of the Armed Force formations as well as for the rotation of strike forces. Due to political reasons, a permanent military presence enables Russia to keep Belarus within its area of influence. Nevertheless, in military terms, the utilisation of military and transport infrastructure in order to rapidly deploy strike forces within the territory of the Republic is far more important.

The creation of the Three Seas Initiative (TSI), the political and economic format for 12 EU countries, is accompanied by a growing interest on the part of world powers and non-EU countries in the region. The aim of the research is to analyse the involvement of three Eastern European countries, namely Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova in projects developed under TSI. The research used a neorealistic approach. These countries belong to the post-Soviet area and, apart from Belarus, show a willingness to cooperate with Western institutions, which arouses a strong reaction from the Russian Federation. The research will result in determining their participation in projects implemented by TSI, including energy, transport, and digital infrastructure. These countries are on the way to working more closely with the Initiative, possibly under the new TSI plus format. The United States supports the expansion of the Three Seas Initiative.

The article is an attempt to summarise the achievements of local government in Poland reactivated in 1990, and the topics discussed in the article focus on development and functioning since 1808 Prussian urban reform, which is the organisational model for contemporary local government units in Europe. Much of the article is also devoted to the functioning of Polish local governments in the 1990s and early 2000s, preceding Poland's accession to the European Union. The issue of the use of pre-accession funds and funds available after 2004 by local governments, which had a significant impact on infrastructure investments in Polish communes, districts and voivodship, was discussed in detail. On the basis of available reports, the article also presents an assessment of the achievements of local government in Poland over thirty years, with its successes and failures. The author also refers to the possibility of using this legacy by local governments of neighbouring countries aspiring to EU membership, mainly Ukraine.

The main research objective of the presented study is to analyse, in accordance with selected theoretical and methodological assumptions, the main challenges of international energy security. This will be possible thanks to a comprehensive analysis in the explanatory and predictive dimension. Analyses of energy security issues take into account long-term development trends as well as unpredictable events related to the functioning of infrastructure and energy technology. Thus, unexpected, sudden phenomena resulting from the dynamics of the international environment gain in importance. The energy security policy has been narrowly defined so far, and thus the issue of thinking in terms of various development opportunities in the raw materials industry is often overlooked. The dilemma related to "non-linear" thinking often ignores a variety of solutions that, taken together, can cause a radical turn in the energy market and its evolution. The methodological framework of the conducted research included research methods appropriate to the science of international relations. The factor method was useful in identifying the determinants of energy security redefinition in the contemporary world. The prognostic analysis turned out to be helpful in the part of the thesis on the prospects for the development of energy security.

Access to energy resources has become one of the main challenges of energy security in the modern world. Due to the growing political instability of countries exporting energy resources, the energy security category should be perceived in a special way. Energy security is expressed, first of all, in stable access to energy resources at an acceptable price. The aim of the article is to determine to what extent the strategy of diversifying the sources of crude oil imports to Poland and Belarus is implemented in practice, and to what extent the implementation of this strategy is conducive to building energy security for both these countries. It seems that despite the similar geological and geographical conditions, as well as the common historical infrastructure heritage, Poland and Belarus shape their energy policy differently. The conducted analysis has an empirical dimension, as the REES index is used to measure the concentration of imports and the short-term risk for the security of crude oil supplies. The article shows that a properly implemented diversification strategy significantly improves the country's energy security, which is possible due to the use of alternative directions for oil imports to the Russian one.

Citizen participation is becoming an important element of self-government practice in Poland. One of the tools supporting the process of involving residents in local government matters is participatory budgeting. Its fundamental importance is to provide residents of local government units with the possibility of deciding on the allocation of some budget expenses, in particular those relating to infrastructure investments. Participatory budgeting is one of the most effective citizen practices aimed at involving residents in managing their cities. However, it can be a tool or a single project and a part of a thorough, long-term, and comprehensive reform of urban policy, based on the city's administrative reform. Citizen engagement is also seen as an instrument of state effectiveness. When citizens can meet their needs and hold public institutions accountable, public money is likely to be used more efficiently to deliver public goods and services that are better suited to citizens' needs. Recognition of the potential of citizen involvement in public affairs is widespread. The aim of the article is to present the concept and genesis of citizen participation as well as to analyze and compare the completed editions of the Zielona Góra Participatory Budgeting in 20132020. A particular attention was paid to the types of winning tasks and the principles of budget implementation.

This study considers signal interference as a form of non-kinetic warfare against unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The practical purpose of this paper is to organize the theoretical knowledge and terminology concerning interference, while its cognitive purpose is to demonstrate that this recently recognized problem is a real threat to the safe use of unmanned aircraft systems. The research methods employed in this work – analysis, synthesis, abstracting and generalization – serve to determine the types of interference (i.e. primarily jamming and spoofing) and their characteristics in relation to unmanned aircraft. The paper organizes the theoretical knowledge by explaining the signal interference techniques and indicating the targets of attacks or objects of interest. Therefore, available non-kinetic energy UAS neutralization systems are analyzed with respect to their capabilities, tactical characteristics and technical specifications. Given the anticipated further development of unmanned aircraft systems technologies, signal interference carries serious implications for the safety of autonomous operation of these systems. The second important conclusion highlighted in this analysis is the absence of a legislative framework that would regulate the use of interference facilities. This gap in legal regulations implicitly permits their engagement against such crucial infrastructure as e.g. satellite devices for navigation systems – standard and critical equipment in the aviation.

The goal of this article is to outline and to analyse the key challenges to be faced by the Polish energy market, as it is only at the beginning of the energy transition process. The dynamics of energy policy adaptation process to the challenges of the energy security dimensions, in the face of the energy and climate policy set by the European Union and the expected transformation goals, may cause the growth of the energy security deficit both on a national and regional scale. Given the centralized model of energy infrastructure management, reliance of domestic generation capacity on conventional sources and insufficient development of cross-border networks, Poland is particularly exposed to a security deficit related to the transformation of its energy system, which may also negatively affect other countries in the East- Central Europe region. Using program documents and sector analyses, the article analyses possible strategies for ensuring energy security, setting the issues in the context of the specificity of the Polish energy sector and opportunities for development of regional cooperation between Central and Eastern European countries. As a result, the article reveals an assessment which shows an insufficient recognition by Poland both the external and internal factors determining the pace and direction of energy modernization, as well as a failure to adapt energy policy objectives to the specifics of low-carbon energy sources and the potential provided for by regional energy markets.

Presented article is focused on the analysis of forced evictions caused by the organization of sport megaevents. The development of sport arenas and associated urban infrastructure usually resulted in forced displacement of many thousand of local inhabitants from its direct neighbourhoods. The first cases of such evictions were observed already during the first half of the twentieth century. During the last three decades mass displacment associated with the sport events becomes a particularly negative sosial issue. We have observed several cases of mass displacement caused by preparation of summer olympic games in Seoul, Atlanta, Athens, Beijing, and Rio de Janeiro. Currently we are observing the growing scale of such evictions in many parts of the globe. The significant scale of such problem is observed in developing states (India, Brazil), as well as in countries ruled in non-democratic manner, charaterized by the low developemt of the institutions of human rights protection. Discussed facts and statistical analysis becomes a point of reference for the in-depth analysis of the economic, political, social, and legal context of this problem. Forced evictions associated with the sport events (so-called mega events) can be considered as a specific category of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). The article is focused on the most spectacular examples of such evictions observed between 1988 and 2016. My particular attention is devoted to the negative social consequences of this issue and its legal implications.

The publication examines actual issues of interstate economic cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in the framework of building new transport and communication routes. There was provided the analysis of the SCO normative legal documents in the terms of transport regulation, both road and rail, there were outlined the prospects and opportunities which emerge as a result of the signing of bilateral and multilateral agreements between the members of the Organization. The author describes the current situation of international transport communication routes and also reveals in details the initiatives proposed by Uzbekistan, pointing out his key role in the formation of new Eurasian transit corridors and arteries. Considering the issue of modern Eurasian interstate cooperation mechanisms'conjugation from an standpoint of creating and improving transport and logistics infrastructure, the author notes the possibility of implementing the initiatives of Russia and China on the SCO platform. Combination of such potential integration projects as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) on the Shanghai Organization platform will create a new model of economic cooperation in the Russia-China-Central Asia triangle. The article also examines the measures taken by the SCO member states to build new and modernize existing road and rail routes on their own territories and on the territory of neighboring states. In the conclusion, it is pointed out that further positive shifts in the developing of the Shanghai Organization transport sector will largely depend on the ability of its participants to take a coordinated policy in the transport and logistics sector.