Notions of the power associated with the European Union's foreign policy and its role in international relations are mostly liberal in origin. This explains the EU's special role in the Cold War era and that it has since emerged more as a moral, ethical and normative power. The EU's lack of military capability has probably been the main cause that prevents it from acting as a great or superpower. The distinction between materialistic and immaterial elements of power has been a crucial point of contention between realists and liberal thinkers. In international relations, we are also witnessing the trend of the EU increasingly using the geopolitical approach (such as in the Ukrainian crisis) besides the normative one. In the article, different concepts of EU foreign policy regarding power in the light of realism and liberalism are compared where, alongside the descriptive method, a SWOT analysis is performed. Keywords: realism, liberalism, power, European Union, Ukraine, foreign policy, international relations
In administrative history of the last six hundred years, different factors & influences had played their role in the formation of middle-level offices. The reason was in management. By dividing provinces into quarters, the provincial estates primarily wanted to protect their property from Turkish raids in the middle of the 15th century. In the middle of the 18th century, the provincial prince or national authority established kresije (state administrative units) that were a prolonged hand of the central state administration. It was supposed to control landowners, enforcement of rules & to protect serfs. By establishing kresije, the Kromeriz Constitution wanted to solve nationality problems in multilingual provinces. The district boards, established after 1868, were also a prolonged hand of the central authority & the result of the hundred-year development of the state administration. The history of middle-level offices shows interests of some groups or individuals that were in power during a certain period of time. Unlike other European countries where these offices were relatively autonomous, they were always a prolonged hand of the central state bodies or at least they served them in the Austrian Empire. The Registry Office plan reflects their competence that comprised all the matters of the population in a certain district from personal to municipal, military, education, ecclesiastical & taxation matters, the result of which was that the population identified itself with a district or quarter or kresija (state administrative unit). The middle-level government name was also one of the reasons for population identification. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
La mostra Oltre Aquileia. La conquista romana del Carso (II-I secolo a.C.) è realizzata dalla Società Alpina delle Giulie, il Centro di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam (ICTP), l'Istituto di Archeologia dell'Accademia Slovena di Scienze e Arti, il Comune di San Dorligo della Valle - Občina Dolina nell'ambito del Progetto espositivo multidisciplinare: Castra, accampamenti militari romani a nordest . Il progetto è stato realizzato col contributo della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia – Direzione centrale cultura e Sport – Servizio attività culturali: Incentivi 2019 Annuali per iniziative progettuali riguardanti Manifestazioni di divulgazione della cultura umanistica . (L.R.16/2014 – delibera 33/2015). ; Razstavo z naslovom Onkraj Akvileje: rimsko osvajanje Krasa (2. in 1. stoletje pr. n. št.) so v sklopu Multidisciplinarnega razstavnega projekta: castra . rimske vojaške utrdbe na severovzhodu pripravili: društvo Società Alpina delle Giulie, Mednarodno središče Abdusa Salama za teoretsko fiziko {ICTP), ZRC SAZU - lnštitut za arheologijo in Občina Dolina. Pokrovitelji projekta so Avtonomna dežela Furlanija - Julijska krajina - Centralna direkcija za kulturo in šport - Služba za kulturne dejavnosti: Letna spodbujevalna piačila 2019, namenjena širjenju humanistične kulture (DZ 16/2014 - sklep 33/2015). ; The exhibition Beyond Aquileia: the Roman conquest of the Karst (2"d- 1st century BC) is organized by the Julian Alpine Society (Società Alpina delle Giulie), the Abdus Salam lnternational Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the lnstitute of Archaeology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Municipality of San Dorligo della Valle - Obcina Dolina as part of the Multidisciplinary exhibition project: Castra, Roman military camps in the northeast . The project was carried out in collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region - Centrai Directorate for Culture and Sport - Cultura! Activities Service: 2019 annual incentives for project initiatives concerning the dissemination of humanist culture. {L.R. 16/2014 - resolution 33/2015.
To magistrsko delo analizira obrambno sodelovanje držav višegrajske skupine s poudarkom na sodelovanju na področju obrambne industrije in sodobne obrambne trgovine med državami. Čeprav se zdi, da je višegrajska skupina zelo povezana in trdna zveza držav, se v literaturi pojavljajo prav nasprotna mnenja. Četudi so vsem državam skupine skupne težave zaradi zastarele vojaške opreme in potrebe po modernih oborožitvenih sistemih ter kljub obetavnim izjavam politikov, je sodelovanje na tem področju zelo skopo. Obrambne industrije višegrajskih držav so čedalje bolj vpete v proizvodne procese zahodnih vojaških multinacionalnih korporacij, politični odločevalci višegrajske skupine pa še vedno niso pripravljeni izdatno podpreti iskrenega sodelovanja med državami, kot na primer skupnih dobav. Četudi lahko pri analizi obrambnih sektorjev skupine zaznamo celo vrsto strukturnih problemov, pa se obrambna trgovina višegrajskih držav ujema z njihovo zunanjo in varnostno politiko. To ujemanje samo po sebi ne izključuje ostalih težav v obrambnih industrijskih sektorjih, ki ovirajo sodelovanje držav, služi pa kot nadaljnji dokaz, kako so obrambno-industrijski sektorji držav tesno povezani z njihovo zunanjo in varnostno politiko. ; This master thesis analyses the defense cooperation of the Visegrad group countries with specific focus on the collaboration initiatives in the defence industry sector and ongoing arms trade relations among the countries. While the Visegrad group seems a coherent and a solid group of countries, many experts on this field argue quite the contrary. Despite the common issues regarding the obsolete military force, the need for newer or modernized weapon systems and, above all, the political declarations promoting the defence industry cooperation among the group countries, there have been little steps taken apart from the promising rhetoric. The countries' defence industries are progressively more involved in the work process of the Western defence corporations, while the political decision makers are still not really keen on genuine cooperation such as common acquisition of arms in intra-group level. While a whole set of obstacles for the deeper cooperation can be identified, foreign and security directions of the countries resemble the trade relations in the arms market. Although this matching as such does not necessarily prove that the group's foreign and security policies solely and by itself negatively contribute to the closer defence industry cooperation, it serves as another proof how the defence industrial complex is tightly connected to one country's foreign and security policy.
Magistrsko delo se ukvarja s pojmom geopolitika in obveščevalno dejavnostjo na tem področju. Geopolitika je pojem, ki ga danes zelo pogosto slišimo, predvsem v povezavi z velikimi silami. V zgodovini je verjetno najbolj znan geostrateški cilj nacistične Nemčije, imenovan »Drang nach Osten« (pohod na vzhod), s katerim bi si arijska rasa zagotovila življenjski prostor na območju vzhodne Evrope. Pri geopolitiki gre torej za uresničevanje interesov, ki jih imajo velike sile v določenem trenutku v drugih delih kontinenta oziroma sveta (predvsem zaradi surovin ali prometnih povezav), da bi si tako zagotovile boljše izhodišče od drugih velesil. Velikokrat se ti interesi skrivajo pod drugimi imeni. Tako je danes moderno govoriti o širjenju demokracije, humanitarnih operacijah itd., čeprav so v ozadju drugi interesi, in sicer interesi, s katerimi velesile uresničujejo svojo zunanjo politiko. Geopolitični interesi se uresničujejo predvsem z ekonomskimi pritiski, ki predvsem v primeru, da so le-ti neuspešni, pogostokrat preidejo v vojaško posredovanje. Najpomembnejšo vlogo pri uresničevanju interesov pa imajo obveščevalne službe. Te poskušajo s svojimi taktikami in metodami dela prodreti v posamezno državo in poskrbeti za vzpostavitev »gnezd«, ki delujejo v skladu z začrtano politiko matične države proti državi gostiteljici in tako pridobivajo kvalitetne informacije, ki so potrebne vodstvu države, da se le-to odloči za ustrezno strategijo delovanja. V tem magistrskem delu bomo torej poskušali predstaviti trenutno geopolitično situacijo v svetu, pomembnejše geostrateške lokacije, ugotoviti in predstaviti, kakšna je vloga obveščevalnih služb pri vsem tem, ter na primerih predstaviti delovanje obveščevalnih služb na področju geopolitike. ; The master's thesis deals with the concept of intelligence service in the field of geopolitics. Geopolitics is a term which is frequently used in connection with big countries. Historically, the most known case of geostrategic goal is Nazi Germany which was called »Drang nach Osten« (German for »yearning for the East«) and the idea was to acquire territory for Aryan race at the expense of eastern European nations (Lebensraum). Geopolitics basically means realizing of interests by big countries in a certain moment in other parts of the continent or world (mostly because of raw materials or traffic connections) in order to ensure better starting-points for themselves than for other big countries. Often these interests hide under another name. Nowadays people like to talk about spreading democracy, humanitarian operations, etc., although there are other interests in the background, interests that serve to exercise foreign policies of big countries. Geopolitical interests are especially realized through economic pressure which (if they are unsuccessful) often increase in military operations. When exercising these interests, the intelligence services have the most important role. They try to enter a country with their tactics and methods, they provide »nests« that work in accordance with the policy of the home country against the host country and thus they acquire quality information that is necessary to political elites of a country in order for them to decide for an appropriate operating strategy. In the master's thesis we will try to present current global geopolitical situation, more important geostrategic locations, determine and present the role of intelligence services in all that, and present with examples how the intelligence services work in the field of geopolitics.
Ekonomski interesi treh ključnih velikih sil, Združenih držav Amerike, Rusije in Kitajske, ki se uveljavljajo oziroma uresničujejo skozi njihove konkretne politike in dejanja, imajo pomemben, če že ne velik vpliv na varnost in politične razmere drugih držav. Ker so ekonomski interesi ključni za katerokoli državo, so medsebojna dinamika, prepletanje in vplivanje teh interesov izrednega pomena za razumevanje trenutnih razmer v mednarodnih odnosih. Analiza primarnih in sekundarnih virov, predvsem pa poglobljeni intervjuji s strokovnjaki nakazujejo, da se politične in varnostne posledice ekonomskih interesov velikih sil največkrat manifestirajo na regionalni ravni. Izjema pri tem so ZDA, ki za doseganje svojih ekonomskih interesov politično in varnostno spreminjajo razmere na globalni ravni. Pri tem so najbolj osredotočene na širitev neoliberalnih ekonomskih praks in zagotovitev energetske varnosti, ki velikokrat poteka s pomočjo znatne uporabe vojaške moči. Rusija, po drugi strani, je trenutno še osredotočena na svojo vlogo energetskega velikana, pri čimer najbolj konkretno vpliva na države iz bližnje soseščine, tudi preko političnih pritiskov in industrijskih sabotaž. Analiza trendov sicer kaže, da bo cilj ekonomske diverzifikacije postajal še pomembnejši v prihodnosti. V osnovi ta zaključek pomeni, da bo Rusija skušala zmanjšati svojo odvisnost od izvoza energentov in na tak način zagotoviti večjo ekonomsko, kot tudi politično in varnostno stabilnost države. Ključna karakteristika ekonomske politike Kitajske je usmeritev v zagotavljanje energetskih virov za rastoče gospodarstvo. V ta namen se poslužuje multisektorske politike, ki je najbolj jasno vidna v Afriki. Ta poseben, quid pro quo pristop se kaže v velikih infrastrukturnih investicijah na strani Kitajske, v zameno za zagotovitve izvoza energentov iz določenih afriških držav. Analiza vse treh držav jasno kaže, da ekonomski interesi vidno vplivajo na odnose med državami v mednarodni skupnosti in usodno določajo dinamiko in ravnovesje sil. ; Economic interests of great powers, specifically United States of America, Russia and China, and the process of attaining these interests through the set of concrete policies and actions has considerable, if not predominantly important effects on political and security situation of other countries. Since economic interests are of pivotal importance for any state, the recognition and understanding of intertwined dynamics and cross-section of these interests is essential for establishing an accurate perception of the current situation in contemporary international relations. Analysis of primary and secondary resources, and especially the in- depth interviews with experts revealed that the majority of political and security implications of the process of attaining economic interests have been manifesting on the regional level. An exception to this rule is the United States, which is affecting political and security characteristics around the globe. In doing so, it is mostly concentrated on continuous expansion of neoliberalism, as well as ensuring energy security, often through utilization of military power. Meanwhile, Russia is currently still focused on its role as an energy giant, and has the ability to strongly influence the countries in its near vicinity through considerate political pressures and industrial sabotage. Many trends within the country and its internal policies seem to suggest that this is likely to change in the near future, and the goal of economic diverzification will become even more important. Essentially, this means that Russia will attempt to reduce its dependence on energy exports, and thus ensure far greater economic, but also political and security stability of the country. Finally, we analyzed China. The key characteristic of its economic policy is focus on ensuring energy resources for its growing economy. In order to succeed, China has been utilizing a multisectoral approach, most clearly visible in Africa. These quid pro quo deals were realized through large infrastrucral investment on the Chinese side, and accompanying insurance of energy exports on the side of the African countries. The analysis of all three states draws the conclusion that economic interests are thus visibly affecting the nature of the intra- state relationships in the international community, and faithfully account for the ultimate dynamics and balance of world powers.
