scholarly journals GUAM TRANSPORT CORRIDOR: POLITICS VS. ECONOMICS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Author(s):  
A. S. Nanavov ◽  
N. Sh. Mamishova

The ODED-GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) was originated more than two decades ago as a friendly cooperative forum of a few post-Soviet countries committed to Euro-Atlanticism. In 2006 the grouping was transformed into a full-fledged international organization bringing together Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. Notwithstanding the geostrategic role of cooperation within GUAM in terms of energy security, protracted conflicts, trade links and other key policy areas, the organization has been recurrently failing to create a common front for its member states. It has been mostly with the recent actualization of ambitious trade and transportation projects to engage the four states that GUAM started to “return to the big game” and attract significant attention from governments and scholars. This study explores the political and economic significance of international transport routes within the framework of intergovernmental relations exampling the origins and evolution, strengths and weaknesses of the GUAM Transport Corridor (GUAM TC) project, and also some insights on reingovirating the transport cooperation agenda in the GUAM region.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-62 ◽  
Author(s):  

How can we understand German-Russian relations since German reunification? Both the geopolitical positions of the two states and the political and economic ties between them have been transformed over the past twentyfive years. This paper will argue, however, that the role of the two countries’ leaders in shaping these relations has been surprisingly important. Building on the tradition of “first image” analysis in international relations, this paper shows that, along with larger political and economic trends, personal relations between these leaders have helped to set the tenor of bilateral ties. When the leaders were able to build trust and personal friendships, relations improved. Yet more recently, since 2012, relations have soured sharply. While there are obviously larger reasons for this, more negative personal ties between leaders have also played an important role. In short, just as issues of trust and friendship matter in personal ties, they also matter in International Relations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Yohanes Benedicktus Meninu Nalele

Commercial sexual exploitation of children is a social problem that has several categories. This issue is scattered in many countries, especially in Asian countries. Child’s commercial sexual exploitation or eksploitasi seksual komersial anak (ESKA) can ruin the future of the children who are victims, of which they are the successors of the nation. Childhood should be filled by playing and learning but changing with the dark. The role of government as the supreme authority of a country in overcoming the problem of ESKA looks not maximized. The purpose of this research is to find out the role of international organizations in addressing the ESKA problem. International organizations, in this case, are ECPAT or End Child Prostitution, child pornographic grapy, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes. How are their efforts and roles in overcoming ESKA and its cooperation with the Indonesian government, obstacles, and challenges faced? The benefits of this journal are useful in the development of International Relations, especially those involving the role of international organizations in addressing the problems of ESKA. The method used is descriptive – qualitative, where this method illustrates and analyzes the role of ECPAT as an international organization in addressing the ESKA in Indonesia (2011 – 2015).


Author(s):  
Agnar Freyr Helgason

Chapter 3, by Agnar Freyr Helgason, offers a review of political economy theories of crises responses. He starts by explaining the broad perspectives of the Keynesian and Austrian schools and then probes more deeply into recent work on government policy responses to economic crises, with a focus on the economic welfare of populations or households. The role of the welfare state and its importance during periods of crisis is considered, as well as the role of government policy more broadly, either that directed at the economy generally or at specific population groups. Key policy debates are covered, for example austerity versus stimulus, as well as mixed approaches.


Author(s):  
Giacomo Luciani

This chapter looks at the role of oil in the political economy and the international relations of the Middle East. Oil is commonly considered a political commodity. Because of its pivotal importance as a primary source of energy, governments are concerned with its continued availability and seek to minimize import dependence. Historically, interest in oil — especially in the United Kingdom and the United States — strongly influenced attitudes towards the Middle East and the formation of the state system in the region, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Oil also affects the power balance within the region. The polarization in the region between oil-rich and oil-poor states is thus an essential tool of analysis. The parallel distinction between rentier and non-rentier states helps to explain how oil affects the domestic political development of the oil-rich states and influences their regional relations.


Author(s):  
Marcel Lajeunesse

The International Organization of the Francophonie (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF) which developed over the last decades of the twentieth century brings together, as of 2008, 53 State and government full members and 13 observer members, spread out over five continents. The Répertoire des bibliothèques nationales de la Francophonie, which is in its third edition (2008), presents index cards on every national library, or library fulfilling such a role, of each member or observer country. After presenting an overview of the International Organization of the Francophonie, this article looks at the creation of the national library in each country, legal deposit and national bibliography. Then, communication (websites) and international relations (membership of IFLA) are addressed. Of the 63 countries surveyed, only 9 countries do not have a national library, although the majority of these nine countries have another institution – a national documentation centre, public or parliamentary library or national archives – that normally fulfils the functions of a national library. It must be recognized that there is a large disparity between the national libraries of developed countries in Europe and North America and those in developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Antilles. In some sub-Saharan African countries, the national library has only a nominal existence.


Author(s):  
Peter M. Haas

The literature on the political economy of the global environment is a hybrid of political economy, international relations (IR), and international environmental politics, looking at the formal and informal institutional factors which give rise to unsustainable habits. The physical environment has long been the subject of social scientists, who recognized that patterns of social activity might contribute to environmental degradation. One of the most common formulations of environmental issues as a collective action is through the metaphor of the Tragedy of Commons, which argues that overpopulation worldwide would undoubtedly contribute to extensive resource depletion. Following the formulation of the core properties of environmental issues as lying at the interstices of a variety of human activities, implications followed for how to conduct research on international environmental politics and policy. Realist and neorealist traditions in international relations stress the seminal role of power and national leadership in addressing environmental problems. Neoliberal institutionalists look at the role of formal institutional properties in influencing states’ willingness to address transboundary and global environmental threats. On the other hand, the constructivist movement in international relations focuses on the role of new ecological doctrines in how states choose to address their environmental problems, and to act collectively. Ultimately, the major policy debates over the years have addressed the political economy of private investment in environmentally oriented activities, sustainable development doctrines, free trade and the environment, environmental security, and studies of compliance, implementation, and effectiveness.


Worldview ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl L. Sullivan

The clay feet of one of the main idols of contemporary international relations have been found and his collapse is awaited. Some observers even go so far as to suggest that the fall of the idol will also bring about the political demise of the land from whose soil he rose and upon which he now rests his laurels.Mohammed Anwar el-Sadat has a Bebe Rebozotype as a close friend and advisor whose very name has become a kind of “shorthand for corruption.” The president of a republic, he has created around himself the atmosphere of a royal court, an imperial and imperious presidency, and also pays little or no attention to his official advisors. Furthermore, his wife, unlike Nasser's, occasionally transcends the boundaries of convention regarding the- role of a woman and thus offends the sensibilities of Moslem society.


Author(s):  
Gisela Hirschmann

This introductory chapter highlights why pluralist accountability is an important empirical phenomenon in global governance that needs to be studied systematically. It demonstrates the limits of the existing literature on international organization (IO) accountability, which has focused on traditional, vertical accountability, whereby the implementing actors are held accountable directly by the mandating authority. The chapter introduces the concept of pluralist accountability as standard setting, monitoring, and sanctioning by independent third parties. It presents the argument that a competitive environment that stimulates third parties to act as accountability holders and the vulnerability of implementing actors regarding human rights demands shape the evolution of pluralist accountability. The chapter then outlines the implications of the book’s analysis for current International Relations and international law scholarship on IOs, in particular with regard to complex delegation, the role of nonstate actors and the study of IO legitimacy. It also contains an overview of the subsequent chapters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Tuleutai Suleimenov ◽  

Kazakhstan at the present stage has the status of a large regional state in the Eurasian space, plays an active role in the system of international relations, occupying a worthy place on the political map of the world. The strategy of independence of N. A. Nazarbayev formed the basis for the vision of modernizing modern Kazakhstani society and strengthening the independence of our country in the new world. The values ​​of our independence: multinationality of a single people, common national interests, education and science, demarcation of state borders, peaceful foreign policy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Krzysztofik ◽  
Weronika Dragan ◽  
Dariusz Gierczak

AbstractThe article addresses the question of the emergence of urban centres with a gateway function in the area of contemporary Poland. The work concentrates on three urban centres – Mysłowice, Szczakowa and Granica (Maczki) – which gateway function was conditioned by the existence of railway border crossings in the past that provided services for international transport. The interpretation of settlements and their transformations followed the town plan analysis includes method of Conzen. The article indicates spatial consequences of this kind of function which influenced a significant part of the urban area in the indicated towns. The study highlights the dynamics of spatial changes contemporarily conditioned by the loss of the former gateway function and a fact that role of the border has been marginalized. From the other point of view the decreasing role of the political borders which have become in Europe in most cases barely a symbolic meaning. In the presented case studies the key aspect determining the marginalization of their role in the rail transport system and also their urban development was the change of the political borders and their negative consequences (demolition post-rail areas, formation of functionally derelict areas or depopulation). Former glory and role of these three towns are the still existing railway stations. Fortunately, presented railway stations – their potential and heritage give new possibilities for ideas of functional changes and future development.


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