scholarly journals The Balkans and Syria’s Civil War: Realities and Challenges

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 357
Author(s):  
MA. Perparim Gutaj
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
The West ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Future ◽  
Prime Objective ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Balkan States

The prime objective of this research paper is to look at the realities and challenges confronting the Balkan states and societies in light of Syria’s civil war. By examining the mobilization process of Balkan militants who are joining Syria’s rebel cause, especially the Islamic radical groups linked to al-Qaeda, this paper proposes a model that explains why and how Balkan militants are joining the fight in Syria. Drawing upon reliable media reports, personal observations, academic accounts, and other consistent sources, this paper argues that Balkan militants are joining Syria’s rebel cause because foreign Islamic radical groups (that have been operating in the Balkans since the early 1990s) have successfully indoctrinated them. This paper challenges the argument that Islam in the Balkans is a threat to the region, and the claim that Balkan Islam and Muslims in the region are becoming an increasing threat to the West. The central findings of this paper exemplify that the future of Balkan militants is bleak and that they will be confronted with a massive modern and democratic resistance that offers them nothing but reintegration into Balkan Islam, their natural “religious nest.” Notwithstanding the trends related to Syria’s civil war, Balkan Muslims belong to the West, culturally and mentally. 

scholarly journals CZY ROSJA PROWADZI NA BAŁKANACH WOJNĘ HYBRYDOWĄ?

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-49
Author(s):  
Wojciech Szczepański
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The West ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Special Services ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Balkan States

Abstrakt: Napięte stosunki między Federacją Rosyjską a Zachodem, konflikty, wyraźnie interpretowane jako wojna hybrydowa prowadzona przez Rosjan w krajach, w których interesy Rosji i Zachodu zderzają się (głównie na Ukrainie), kwestionują skalę i rodzaj rosyjskiego zaangażowania na Bałkanach - obszarze tradycyjnego wielowymiarowego konfliktu między Wschodem i Zachodem, w którym destabilizacja stanowi klucz do odbudowy równowagi sił w całej Europie Środkowej. Artykuł analizuje formy rosyjskiej obecności w krajach bałkańskich - zwłaszcza na obszarze post-jugosłowiańskim - działalność gospodarczą rosyjskich służb specjalnych, wywiadowcze operacje ofensywne w Serbii, Czarnogórze, Macedonii, powiązania Moskwy z procesami politycznymi i wojną medialną sprzyjającą radykalizacji społecznej i wzrostowi nastrojów prorosyjskich. Abstract: Currently strained relations between the Russian Federation and the West, conflicts clearly interpreted as hybrid warfare led by the Russians in countries in which the interests of Russia and the West (mainly Ukraine) are overwhelming, question the scale and type of Russian involvement in the Balkans - the area of traditional multidimensional conflict between East and West, in whose destabilization lies the key to the reconstruction of the balance of power throughout Central Europe. The article examines the forms of Russian presence in the Balkan states - especially post-Yugoslavian - Russia's economic activity of its special services, intelligence offensive operations in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia in the last few years, Moscow's links with political processes and the targeting of media messages favouring social radicalization and increase in pro-Russian moods.

The Bridge to Eternity

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-148
Author(s):  
Oskar Gruenwald ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Spiritual Renewal ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Mountain Village ◽  
South Slavs

This essay considers Medjugorje, a small mountain village in Bosma-Hercegovina, as an icon or a bridge between God and man. The contemporary quest for national roots in the Balkans has led to cultural policies in the Yugoslav successor states which deny all common bonds among the South Slavs, resulting in a Kafkaesque civil war. Drawing on the crisis of liberal democracy and community in the West, the essay explores the prospects for peace in the former Yugoslavia, as reflected in Our Lady of Medjugorje's call for moral and spiritual renewal. It concludes that the quintessential, universal. Christian, and ecumenical Medjugorje message of peace represents a bridge to eternity, just as the historic Old Bridge in Mostar and the Višegrad Bridge over the Drina River are symbolic of a common South Slav history and destiny.

Horizons

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The West ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
The Future ◽  
John Brown ◽  
Henry Clay

Focusing on westward expansion, this chapter studies antebellum warnings that frontier conflicts would cause civil war. It shows how diverging material cultures divided northerners and southerners in the West, the region that Americans associated with the future. Southern settlers wielded bowie knives to threaten aggressive filibusters and manly conquests for slavery. Northern emigrants concealed arms in crates to project how a civilized culture and prosperous economy would preserve the territories for freedom. These material cultures clashed at the Battle of Black Jack when John Brown captured Henry Clay Pate and stole his bowie knife. Black Jack was the first battle between northerners and southerners over slavery.

Making different choices in the Balkan wars of the 1990s: Bosnia in 1992–95 and Kosovo in 1999

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The West ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
Break Up

The historic Russian interest in the Balkans cmpeted with the American-led, changed NATO mission to generate considerable conflict in the immediate aftermath of the 1991 break-up of Yugoslavia. During the ensurng Balkan Wars, American and Russian interests clashed continuously during the Bosnian civil war of 1992-95. Further, the distinctiveness of the Kosovo republic within the shrunken Yugoslavia intensified these American-Russian differences. NATO air strikes took place both under the sponsorship of Operation Allied Force in Bosnia and in response to Serbian military incursions its own republic of Kosovo that included a 90% Muslim population. Conversations continued sporadically after completion of the NATO-Russian Founding Act in 1997, but military initiatives by the West threw them off the tracks.

scholarly journals The socio-cultural and political significance of coffeehouses and coffee culture during the independence processes of Kosovo

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Ajhan Bajmaku ◽  
Cinar Nartar
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Values ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Pull Through

The coffee culture in the Balkans spread and developed as the Ottoman Empire began using the region as a base that opened into Europe. This region with great strategic significance draws attention not only because it functioned as a bridge between the East and the West but also because of cultural and political values in perspective of the process of changes and developments that have taken place throughout time. As an establishment the coffeehouse is a vital concept for society. Beside their fundamental functions, coffeehouses have gained additional functions over the course of history. These additional functions are directed by socio-cultural and political behaviours. This research paper aims to focus on the socio-cultural and political roles of the coffee culture and coffeehouses with regard to the independence and liberation movements that took place with beginning with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, particularly in Kosovo. Within this context, the crucial role of coffeehouses is explained through the struggle every fraction of society went through to keep their own cultural and political identities alive in order to pull through the negative circumstances created in Kosovo by the wars experienced in the region in the 1990s. Furthermore, this paper also aims to reveal the significant role coffeehouses and their spatial functions play when a nation undertakes the immense challenge of emancipation.

Conference Reports

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-234
Author(s):  
Edin Mujagic ◽  
Dóra Győrffy ◽  
László Jankovics
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
European Association ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Conference Report ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Summer Institute ◽  
The West ◽  
The Future ◽  
Economic Studies ◽  
The Eu

EMU Enlargement to the East and the West CEPR/ESI Conference. Report of the 8th annual conference of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the European Summer Institute (ESI) held in September 2004 in Budapest, Hungary. (Conference report by Edin Mujagic); Dilemmas around the future enlargement of the EU-EACES Conference. The European Association for Comparative Economic Studies (EACES) held its 8th biannual conference at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade on September 23-25, 2004. (Conference report by Dóra Gyõrffy and László Jankovics)

On South Sudan, in English. Review of the Books by Peter Martell “First Raise A Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the Peace” and John Young “South Sudan’s Civil War: Violence, Insurgency and Failed Peacemaking”

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Anna Sharova
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil War ◽  
English Language ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Graham Greene ◽  
The Future ◽  
Independent Country ◽  
Spot Analysis

Anna Sharova reviews two recent books separately published by two English language authors – P. Martell and J. Young. The books are very different in style and mood. While P. Martell presents an excellent example of British journalist prose in the style of his elder compatriots Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, who did their reporting and writing from exotic countries during fateful periods of history, J. Young offers a more academic, though no less ‘on the spot’ analysis of the situation in the youngest independent country of Africa. J. Young’s considers two possible approaches to conflict resolution as possible outcomes: non-intervention cum continuation of the war, or the introduction of international governance. P. Martell comes up with a disappointing prediction about the future of South Sudan. The war will go on, the famine will return, and the threat of genocide will not disappear. People will continue to flee the country, and refugee camps will grow. New warring groups will appear, new murders will be committed. Neighbouring states will not stop competing for influence and resources. New peacekeepers will arrive. Warlords will be accused of crimes, but, as before, they will escape punishment, while some will be promoted.

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
The Public ◽  
Antebellum Era ◽  
Narrative Device ◽  
The Future

This conclusion explains how American temporalities changed after the war and sketches how expectations and anticipations of the future have alternated as the dominant view in American culture through the twentieth century to today. This chapter also shows how the short war myth, the story that Civil War Americans expected a short, glorious war at the outset, gained currency with the public and consensus among scholars during the postwar period. It contrasts the wartime expectations of individuals with their postwar memories of the war’s beginning to show how the short war myth worked as a tool for sectional reconciliation and a narrative device that dramatized the war by creating an innocent antebellum era or golden age before the cataclysm. It considers why historians still accept the myth and showcases three postwar voices that challenged it.

Prologue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Antebellum America ◽  
Women Slaves ◽  
Military Planning ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future War

This introduction explains that looming, a nineteenth-century term for a superior mirage, shows us how visions of the future war affected antebellum America. First, some spark, an event or object, captured people’s attention. Second, a unique atmosphere elevated and enlarged that spark, making it loom greater than reality. Before the Civil War was fought or remembered, it was imagined by thousands of Americans who peered at the horizon through an apocalyptic atmosphere. Third, observers focused on it and reported what appeared to be beyond the horizon. Popular forecasts rose from leaders but also women, slaves, immigrants, and common soldiers. These imaginings shaped politics, military planning, and the economy. The prologue identifies the two prevailing temporalities of antebellum America, anticipations and expectations, and calls for more historical attention to the diverse temporalities of past people.

At the Edge of Reformation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Linehan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.

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