The Role of nato Enlargement in the Ukraine Crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Nato Enlargement ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Ukraine Crisis ◽  
East West

The Ukraine crisis has spawned an East–west confrontation that was generated by misperceptions on both sides: (1) by Russian perceptions of security challenges resulting from nato’s enlargement, as Moscow reacted (and over-reacted) to the threat that Ukraine would become a member and, as such, would pose a danger to Russia; and (2) by Western blindness to (or lack of concern for) the genuine worries that the prospect of Ukrainian membership stirred in Russian minds. This article briefly examines the gradual strengthening of these mutual misperceptions as nato engaged in its process of enlargement. It argues that the prospect of Ukraine’s imminent membership brought to a boil the long-brewing clash of assumptions about requirements for Europe’s security.

Parliament as the Foreign Policy Actor: the Resources of the Parliamentary Diplomacy

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 316-321
Author(s):  
Boris I. Ananyev ◽  
Daniil A. Parenkov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Security ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Conservative Approach ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Actor ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Essential Idea ◽  
Per Se

The aim of the article is to show the role of parliament in the foreign policy within the framework of the conservative school of thought. The authors examine both Russian and Western traditions of conservatism and come to the conclusion that the essential idea of “the rule of the best” has turned to be one of the basic elements of the modern legislative body per se. What’s more, parliament, according to the conservative approach, tends to be the institution that represents the real spirit of the nation and national interests. Therefore the interaction of parliaments on the international arena appears to be the form of the organic communication between nations. Parliamentary diplomacy today is the tool that has the potential to address to the number of issues that are difficult to deal with within the framework of the traditional forms of IR: international security, challenges posed by new technologies, international sanctions and other.

scholarly journals Hegemonic Distortions: The Securitisation of the Insurgency in Thailand's Deep South

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-232
Author(s):  
Nicole Jenne ◽  
Jun Yan Chang
Keyword(s):  
External Environment ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Current Period ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Islamist Terrorism ◽  
Political Decisions

AbstractThe conflict between the Thai state and the Malay-Muslim insurgency in the country's Deep South is one of Southeast Asia's most persistent internal security challenges. The start of the current period of violence dates back to the early 2000s, and since then, a significant number of studies exploring the renewed escalation have been published. In this study, we argue that existing scholarship has not adequately accounted for the external environment in which political decisions were taken on how to deal with the southern insurgency. We seek to show how the internationally dominant, hegemonic security agenda of so-called non-traditional security (NTS) influenced the Thai government's approach to the conflict. Building upon the Copenhagen School's securitisation theory, we show how the insurgency became securitised under the dominant NTS narrative, leading to the adoption of harsh measures and alienating discourses that triggered the escalation of violence that continues today. The specific NTS frameworks that ‘distorted’ the Thai state's approach of one that had been informed solely by local facts and conditions were those of anti-narcotics and Islamist terrorism, albeit in different ways. Based on the findings from the case study, the article concludes with a reflection on the role of the hegemonic NTS agenda and its implications for Southeast Asian politics and scholarship.

Bridging East and West

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eglė Rindzevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Lyndon Johnson ◽  
East And West ◽  
East West

This chapter details the establishment of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) to demonstrate the crucial role of East-West cooperation in shaping global governance. IIASA as a diplomatic initiative was the result of actions by top governmental officials: US president Lyndon Johnson proposed creating an East-West think tank and Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin accepted his proposal, both sides considering this step as part of cultural diplomacy or an exercise of “soft power” in the presumably less ideological areas of science and technology. The chapter then suggests that the establishment of IIASA can be interpreted as precisely such a forward-oriented arrangement to enable a certain form of cooperation between the opposing great powers: mutual predictability was enhanced by bringing together leading policy scientists from East and West, whereas shared goals were articulated through applied systems research.

India's national security: challenges and dilemmas

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-857
Author(s):  
Harsh V. Pant ◽  
Kartik Bommakanti
Keyword(s):  
Use Of Force ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Indian State ◽  
The Face ◽  
Military Strength ◽  
Threat Environment

Abstract India faces a very challenging strategic environment, with its immediate opponents possessing significant capabilities and militaries that are modernizing rapidly. This article explores the opportunities, challenges and constraints confronting the Indian state in building its military strength to deal with its variegated threat environment. It examines how India has dealt with the use of force and how it seeks to shape its armed forces in the face of new threats and emerging capabilities. This article explores six key areas of enquiry and is correspondingly structured. First, how does the Indian state view the use of force? Second, what has the Indian state's recent experience been with conflict and to what extent has it influenced its thinking? Third, how does the Indian state view the future character of conflict? Fourth, what conclusions has India drawn about the role of alliances and strategic partners in dealing with the nature of the conflict it faces? Fifth, how does the Indian state intend to configure its forces to deal with this evolving nature of conflict? Finally, what do all these factors mean for its defence acquisitions? As an emerging power, India has to contend with these questions and the measures it has put in place are still a work in progress. There remains a fundamental need for greater integration across the Indian security sphere—in interservice arrangements, in procurement processes, and in broader strategic thinking and planning.

Helsinki Syndrome: The Parachronistic Renaissance of Finlandization in International Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tapio Juntunen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Original Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Great Power Politics ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Ukraine Crisis ◽  
International Anarchy

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has produced a number of commentaries that have tried to grasp the crisis through the comforting lens of historical analogies. One of the most perplexing of these has been the revival of Finlandization, or the idea of the “Finnish model” as a possible solution to the Ukraine crisis. In this article I interrogate these arguments, firstly, by historicising the original process of Finlandization during the Cold War. Secondly, I argue that the renaissance of Finlandization is based on parachronistic reasoning. In other words, the Finlandization analogy has been applied to modern-day Ukraine in such a way that the alien elements of the past context are, to paraphrase Quentin Skinner, “dissolved into an apparent but misleading familiarity” in the present re-appropriation of the idea and its contextual prerequisites. Indeed, the reappearance of Finlandization in the context of the Ukraine crisis reinforces the idea that the real drivers of international affairs can be reduced to the axioms derived from the transhistorical logic of international anarchy and the iron laws of great power politics. Thus, this article makes a novel contribution to the theoretical discussion on the role of analogies and myths in International Relations.

scholarly journals Role of research psychology in defence and security

2018 ◽  
Vol 165 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-115
Author(s):  
Fiona Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Real World ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Way

The following article provides an overview of the research psychology capabilities within MOD's Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl). An explanation is provided of the role of Dstl psychologists and the way they work to deliver impacting applied scientific research to address 'real world' defence and security challenges. Three short case studies are provided to illustrate the range of work they delivered.

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