Indian security policy

Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-85
Author(s):  
D. V. Streltsov

The article analyzes long-term external and internal factors determining the course of development of Russian-Japanese relations in 2019-2020. On the one hand, the anti-Russian component in Tokyo's foreign policy is shaped by its membership in the Security Treaty with the United States and its solidarity with the sanctions policy of the Group of Seven towards Russia. On the other hand, Japan and Russia are both interested interest in political cooperation in creating multilateral dialog mechanisms of international security in East Asia, resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and easing tensions around territorial disputes in the East China and South China seas. Among the economic factors, the author focuses on the significant place of Russia in the context of Japan's task of diversifying sources of external energy supplies, as well as on Russia's desire to avoid unilateral dependence on the Chinese market while reorienting the system of foreign economic relations from the West to the East. Personal diplomacy of political leaders plays a significant role in relations between Russia and Japan, and, above all, close personal relationships and frequent meetings between Prime Minister Abe and President Putin, which make it possible to partially compensate the unfavorable image of the partner country in the public opinion of both Russia and Japan. Against the background of a deadlock in the Peace Treaty talks which emerged in 2019, the search for a way out of the diplomatic impasse is on the agenda. In the author's opinion, it would be appropriate at the first stage to proceed to the conclusion of a basic agreement on the basis bilateral relations, which would be "untied" from the Peace Treaty. In addition, Russia could stop criticizing Japan for its security policy and show greater understanding of the Japanese initiative in the field of quality infrastructure. In turn, Japan could take a number of strategic decisions on cooperation with Russia and announce them in the Prime Minister's keynote speech. In addition, Tokyo could stop positioning the issue of the peace Treaty as the main issue in relations with Russia, which would allow our countries to "untie" bilateral relations from the problem of border demarcation and focus on their positive agenda.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-649
Author(s):  
G.T. Shkiperova ◽  
P.V. Druzhinin

Subject. Considering the existing environmental situation, it becomes especially important for the State to regulate the anthropogenic footprint on the environment in the Russian Federation. Current amendments to the legislative framework for environmental security are intended to ensure the innovative development of regions concurrently with a reduction in adverse environmental effects and more active environmental policy. Objectives. The research is to devise methodological tools to evaluate the efficiency of environmental policy in regions. Methods. The research employs qualitative and quantitative methods of economic analysis, including statistical and content analysis, rating, matrix zoning. The dataset proceeds from the Federal State Statistics Service, governmental reports on the current environmental situation and environmental protection in the Russian Federation. Results. We propose our own approach to evaluating the efficiency of environmental policy. It may help trace the correlation between the quality of strategic documents and changes in environmental indicators for a certain period, flag the challenging areas in terms of the environmental policy implementation and outline possible development paths. The approach extends the list of quantification indicators in line with those ones adopted internationally and presented in the Environmental Security Strategy of the Russian Federation up to 2025. We evaluated the efficiency of the environmental policy referring to the regions of the Northwestern Federal District for the period from 2012–2016. Conclusions. Having analyzed the evaluation results, most of the Northwestern regions tend to be controversial and ambivalent in setting environmental goals and achieving them. The findings may prove useful as the analytical and data basis for articulating the environmental and economic policy of the regions.


2018 ◽  
pp. 25-38
Author(s):  
Liudmila Kalinichenko

The article analyses the role of renewable energy in the process of the development of the energy market of the East African Community (EAC) . The author underlines the necessity of finding solutions for such challenges as rising wood and charcoal prices, deforestation, lack of affordable and reliable electricity for a large number of consumers. The study reveals that nowadays the percentage of people with access to modern sources of energy is very low, varying from 7 % in Burundi to 36% in Kenya, although the EAC countries made significant progress in 2000s. Most people in rural areas rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, which leads to ecological and health problems. The author concludes that renewable energy development is considered by the Community as one of the prospective ways for providing energy to remote regions in view of abundant solar, wind and geothermal resources. Their strategy aims at the construction of micro and mini hydro stations, stand-alone solar PV systems and off-grids for rural population usage. The study shows that the investment in off-grid renewables has been steadily rising in recent times . Analyzing grid-connected power generation electricity, the author elicits that it is also based on renewable electricity, which accounts for 65% of the total amount. Kenya, with the highest installed capacity in this sector, is investing mainly in geothermal, solar and wind sources of energy, while the others are focusing on hydropower and solar. For the purpose of attracting private investment, the EAC partner states adopted different regulations, including Feed-in Tariff, zero-VAT and GET FIT Programme. The author assumes that renewable energy financing is one of the main challenges despite the support of different international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, UNIDO, AfDB and others. Nowadays energy efficiency measures are becoming important instruments for the EAC countries resulted in power savings. The other important trend is increasing cooperation among them due to their grid-connected power systems in the East African Power Pool. In this context, in November 2017, the EAC Partner States adopted Energy Security Policy Framework, in order to ensure the sustainable development of their energy sector.


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