The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Sejm and religious policy of the state – selected aspects

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
Piotr Pochyły
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Religious Policy

scholarly journals Looking at the past

2018 ◽  
pp. 139-168
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Bozhko
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Bureaucratic Corruption ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Analysis

The article describes the reminiscences of Oleksnadr Bozhko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Armenia. Having arrived to Yerevan as the first Ambassador of independent Ukraine, the author became a witness to the events that initially led to a long-lasting political crisis, and subsequently to the unconstitutional change of Armenian government. The article analyses the tumultuous events that Ukrainian Embassy faced immediately after its opening in September 1996. At that time, the Armenian society, which for years had been patiently overcoming numerous abuses of power, the arbitrariness of oligarchs, bureaucratic corruption and bribery at courts, broke out with a riot of peaceful disobedience. It was the time when the reminiscences of the fierce Armenian-Azerbaijani War for Nagorno-Karabakh of 1991–1994 were still in minds of people when society had been drawn into an exhaustible internal political confrontation on the eve of the presidential elections. The more electoral confrontation grew, the more dissatisfying was the population with the leadership of the state. Eventually the state of emergency was introduced in the country. These factors affected further activities of Ukrainian diplomats. It was important to quickly find premises suitable for a diplomatic mission and to carry out the diplomatic procedures necessary for the launch of Embassy’s activities. The author states with sorrow that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia did not even find money to fuel a car and bring Ukrainian delegation to Yerevan. Shattered roads that have long been unrepaired, queues near bakeries and kerosene selling points, semi-empty store shelves and even faded eyes of those, with whom the author communicated, – those were sad realities of the Armenian life in the mid-nineties. The formation of the diplomatic services in both countries was carried out under difficult conditions, likewise the maintenance of diplomats’ activity in Ukraine was similarly poor then. The article also describes that the stumbling point in Ukrainian-Armenian relations was an issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. The principle of territorial integrity was one of the fundamental in security sphere of Ukraine, whereas Armenia, which acted as guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh security, adhered to the principle of self-determination of the nation. In this respect, Armenian politicians considered everything related to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. This dramatic problem was originated from 1921, when Nagorno-Karabakh was included to the Azerbaijani SSR. The policy of displacing the Armenians from their ancestral lands, which was deliberately carried out by the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan, caused frustration of Armenians, dozens of thousands of whom had lived in that territory for centuries. The author analyses the cooperation with the Directorate for Political Analysis and Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the defining Ukraine’s possible position in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. The author emphasizes that the article is not just a diplomatic memoirs but also an attempt to comprehend what has happened to us over the past two decades, looking back at the past experience. Keywords: Armenia, Embassy of Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukrainian-Armenian relations.

scholarly journals Jurisdiction of state administration in the procedure of issuing travel documents

2011 ◽  
pp. 241-258
Author(s):  
Zoran Loncar
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Exclusive Jurisdiction ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
Internal Affairs ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government

Under the new law on travel documents, in addition to authority that has the Government of Serbia, in terms of issuing travel documents and a shared competence between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs depending on the type of travel document in question. Ministry of Foreign Affairs is authorized to issue a diplomatic passport, official passport and travel document, while all other travel documents are issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When it comes to the passport as the most important travel document the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is fully established. Diplomatic and Consular Missions of the Republic of Serbia abroad can now only receive requests for passport, but the issuance of travel documents of this type is exclusive jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Such jurisdiction of the state administration in the process of issuing travel documents, along with other novelties which significantly modernize this kind of special administrative procedures should in practice very quickly enable the efficient issuance of travel documents, thus achieving the complete freedom of movement as one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to the citizens of the Republic of Serbia.

scholarly journals Missionary Action of the Orthodox Church among Greek Catholics in the Recovered Territories as Part of the Religious Policy of the State in the People’s Republic of Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-88
Author(s):  
Stefan Dudra
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The State ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
World War ◽  
Religious Policy

The aim of the article is to analyze the missionary action of the Orthodox Church undertaken among Greek Catholics in the Recovered Territories of Poland following World War II. As a result of “Operation Vistula” the Orthodox and Greek Catholic population was settled in the Recovered Territories. As a result of the communist policy implemented by the communist authorities, the Orthodox Church took action to provide religious care to Greek Catholics. This policy was aimed at significantly weakening the Greek Catholic Church. It was also hoped that it would be liquidated. Despite the attempts made, the Greek Catholics preserved their identity, and after 1956 they began the process of building their own parish structure.

The Certainty of Uncertainty: Taiwanese Public Opinion on U.S.–Taiwan Relations in the Early Trump Presidency

World Affairs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 182 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-369
Author(s):  
Chung-li Wu ◽  
Alex Min-Wei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
White House ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Chinese Ethnicity ◽  
Taiwan Independence

The election of Donald Trump has injected new uncertainties into the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs in Asia. For Taiwan, regional security is challenging because it must simultaneously deal with an increasingly belligerent China and an America led by the unconventional Trump. Based on public opinion data, this study analyzes how the Taiwanese public perceives the state of U.S.–Taiwan relations, and how certain they are about America’s overall commitment to Taiwan in this era. Results indicate that people in their 20s, pan-Green partisans, and those favoring Taiwan independence perceive U.S.–Taiwan relations to be better under President Trump. Moreover, supporters of the pan-Green coalition and of Taiwan independence, together with the more “ambivalent” respondents, likewise feel more certain about America’s commitment to Taiwan’s security. On the contrary, pan-Blue partisans and Taiwanese citizens with mainland Chinese ethnicity are generally more pessimistic and skeptical about U.S.–Taiwan ties and partnership with Trump in the White House.

Legislatures and Foreign Relations

1917 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denys P. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Treaty Ratification ◽  
Legislative Control ◽  
Complete Independence ◽  
The Government ◽  
International Phenomenon ◽  
Complete Dependence

In a previous paper foreign relations as a phase of governmental activity were considered chiefly as an international phenomenon. Such relations were there discussed largely in their political bearing and some attempt was made to deduce from practice the considerations which affect foreign offices and the conditions encountered by diplomatic personnel. The problems of secrecy in negotiations and of secret treaties were examined and an effort made to indicate how much knowledge of both may be justifiably concealed. The present paper is a study of legislative control over foreign relations.Systems of legislative handling of foreign relations may be distinguished as of three types, which we may designate as the continental, the executive, and the American. The American type is characterized by an imposed agreement between the executive and legislative departments of government before treaties can become binding upon the state. The continental type is characterized by a less complete dependence of the executive upon the legislative department in respect to treaty ratification. The executive type is characterized by an almost complete independence of the executive respecting treaty ratification.All systems recognize definitely that the conduct of foreign relations is an executive function. None denies the patent facts that it is the place of the executive to speak and act for the state, and that, in all matters not definable as legislation, the minister can definitely bind the state. Innumerable decisions under all systems are reached by the department of foreign affairs without any but the executive branch of the government knowing anything of them until they are recorded facts.

Diplomacy and Diplomats

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iver B. Neumann
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Context Change ◽  
Social Traits ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Work Abroad ◽  
At Home

The diplomat is formed in certain socially specific ways, and is defined by the role they play within certain contexts in the field of international relations. Since it is human beings, and not organizations, who practice diplomacy, the diplomats’ social traits are relevant to their work. Historically, diplomats can be defined in terms of two key social traits (class and gender) and how their roles depend on two contexts (bureaucrat/information gatherer and private/public). Before the rise of the state in Europe, envoys were usually monks. With the rise of the state, the aristocracy took over the diplomatic missions. Nonaristocrats were later allowed to assume the role of diplomats, but they needed to be trained, both as gentlemen and as diplomats. From the eighteenth century onwards, wives usually accompanied diplomats stationed abroad, though by the end of the nineteenth century, a few women came to work as typists and carry out menial chores for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). As women became legal persons through performing such labor, they later became qualified to legally serve as diplomats. Meanwhile, in terms of context, the key context change for a diplomat is from “at home” (as in “my home country”) to “abroad.” Historically, work at home is the descendant of bureaucratic service at the MFA, and work abroad of the diplomatic service.

scholarly journals Performing Statehood through Crises: Citizens, Strangers, Territory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iver B Neumann ◽  
Ole Jacob Sending
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
State Identity ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
State Actor ◽  
Multiple Audiences ◽  
The One

Abstract This article applies the growing International Relations literature on state performance and performativity to the question of how practitioners categorize different kinds of crises. The aim is to add value to the crisis literature by paying more attention to how performances are staged for multiple audiences, how statehood is produced as a collective (as opposed to an individual) body, and how and why one and the same state actor performs statehood in different ways. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, we discuss how one state apparatus, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), performs statehood during different types of crisis. The MFA has institutionalized crisis management in three very different ways, depending on whether it defines the crisis as a security crisis, a humanitarian crisis, or a civilian crisis. Different crises have different audiences, are performed in different repertoires, and produce three different aspects of the state that we name, respectively, caretaking, do-gooding, and sovereignty. Bringing the performativity literature to the study of crises gives us a better understanding of the statecraft that goes into using crises as opportunities to make visible and strengthen the state as a presence in national and global social life. Conversely, our focus on the specificity of various state performances highlights how the performance literature stands to gain from differentiating more clearly between the straightforward performing of practices, on the one hand, and the performing of state identity by means of the same practices, on the other.

Coercion, Cooperation, Conflicts and Contempt: Orthodox-Lutheran Relations in Swedish-Occupied Kexholm County, Karelia, in the Seventeenth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teuvo Laitila
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
County Level ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Religious Policy ◽  
Coercive Treatment ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
The Way

The article is about the Swedish religious policy towards the Orthodox (a majority at first, a minority after the mid-1650s) and Orthodox-Lutheran relations at the grassroots level. It shows that in official Swedish policy, the highest authorities urged local functionaries to cautious and non-coercive treatment of the Orthodox, while the latter at times proposed, and partly tried to implement, a forced conversion of the Karelians. Grassroots relations between Orthodox and Lutherans varied greatly, depending on which of them made up a majority in each place, who owned the land, and whether the Lutherans were newcomers. When the Orthodox were a majority the Lutherans conformed with their faith, even converting to Orthodoxy, although this was officially forbidden. When the majority consisted of Lutherans, the Orthodox started to convert or to assimilate to the Lutheran way of life. At the county level, religion as such was not a major factor in transforming the region into a Lutheran one. More important was the way in which religious issues were linked to local social encounters and practices and how the state overtly or covertly attempted to change Orthodoxy and encouraged Orthodox emigration from and Lutheran immigration to the county.

VIII. Copy of a despatch addressed to her Majesty's Secretary of state for foreign affairs by the British consul at Canea, Crete, giving an account of an earthquake which took place in that Island

1868 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 162-162
Keyword(s):  
Normal Condition ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Secretary Of State

My Lord,—I have the honour to acquaint your Lordship that two shocks of earthquake were felt here at 5 1/2 on the afternoon of the 19th instant, and again on the following morning, after an interval of twelve hours. The latter shock was severe, and lasted about ten seconds. The oscillations were horizontal, and appeared to proceed from east to west. Several houses have been cracked and otherwise damaged, and one of the old Venetian galley-arches fell sideways in a block, killing a Turkish sentry and a hospital attendant. A remarkable phenomenon occurred that morning soon after the earthquake. The sea receded at the rate of about ten inches per minute, until, attaining a maximum depression of some four feet, it gradually rose again above its former level. The water in the wells was affected in the same degree, and on rising it became much agitated. At 5 3/4 a. m. the sea-water was tepid, with a temperature of 87° (Fahr.), being equal to that of the air. The morning was unusually still and sultry, and it was not until the afternoon that the sea subsided into its normal condition, tempered by a cool northerly breeze. A strong eddy had set in, causing much damage to shipping, several of the smaller craft parting their cables and coming into collision with each other. With reference to the state of the sea, it is worthy of note that the copper-bottom of Her Majesty’s Ship ‘Wizard,’ now in this port, became suddenly clean and bright.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document