scholarly journals “Hydrocarbon strategy” of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy: 2008 – 2015

Author(s):  
M. Volhonsky

This article examines the role of energy factor in Azerbaijan’s foreign policy in the period from 2008 to 2015. Detailed analysis of the impact of EU policy on diversification of energy supplies to European countries for the development of «hydrocarbon strategy» of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy exposes the differences between the Baku and Brussels on ways of resolving the problem of diversification of gas supplies to Europe. The article also examines the specific goals pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities, initiating the creation of new gas pipelines TANAP and TAP, and helps to understand the position of Baku regarding the project of creating a «TRANS-Caspian pipeline.» In general, the foreign policy of Azerbaijan in the energy sphere is admitted in the article as quite successful. This policy allowed Baku to go through the implementation of various infrastructure projects to a wider gas security as a part of the European market.

Author(s):  
N. Lapina

This article deals with the impact of various factors on the perception of Russia in different European countries. The focus is on the role of mass media, expert and political elites in forming of Russia's image, especially in the context of Ukrainian crisis. In this article, the reaction of different European counties to events in Ukraine, the polarization of European space is analyzed: some countries prefer to put a pressure on the Russian Federation, other – to find a way out of the critical situation and reach a compromise. Some political establishment representatives in France, Germany, Czech Republic support Russia and the reunification with Crimea, dispute sanctions against Russia. For such politicians, this support results from anti-American views and independent foreign policy aspirations. Other representatives of the European elite demand tougher approach and more pressure on Russia by any means whatsoever (including military ones). European business-communities reveal great interest in solving issues related to sanctions. Many entrepreneurs in Europe (in particular major corporations in France, UK, Germany, Italy), who profit from long and fruitful cooperation with Russia, are against anti-Russian sanctions. In view of the Ukrainian crisis, Russia has to face and solve various important issues. How can Russia implement a modernization project after burning all traditional bridges to the West and western friends and partners? What is the right way for Russian foreign policy to support and defend Russian-speaking people all over the world? Which European political forces can provide support to Russia? How can civil society affect and influence cooperation between Russia and Europe?


1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Ivashchenko

The most contradictions arise today over the pension system reforming. Each year the states spent significant resources to finance social and economic needs of the population. The positive effect of the nominal growth of the social and economic guarantees in Ukraine leveled nowadays in terms of financial, economic and political instability. Also the processes of depopulation have a very negative impact on the financial viability of the PAYG pension system. Given this, the research aim was to study and discuss tendencies in financial provision of the pension systems in the European countries and Ukraine under globalization. As a result in the process of research the main features of functioning and providing of the pension insurance systems in European countries and Ukraine were examined; the impact of the depopulation processes on the financial provision of the pension systems was determined; problems, related to introduction of the funded system of pension insurance were analyzed; the role of the minimum pension institute in provision of the effective pension system functioning was disclosed and recommendations in relation to optimization of pension insurance and providing сo-operation under globalization were developed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 84-97
Author(s):  
Tatyana Leonidovna Musatova

The article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic crisis on the foreign policy and diplomacy of states, including economic diplomacy. ED is interpreted as a multi-sided multi-faceted activity, an integral part of foreign policy aimed at protecting the national interests and economic security of the country. Given the interdepartmental nature of the ED, the presence of numerous actors and agents, not only state, but also public and business structures, political and foreign economic coordination on the part of the Foreign Ministries is of great importance, and this role of foreign policy departments is increasing during the pandemic crisis. The activity of the ED of Russia in 2020 was generally successful, among the main results: active participation of diplomats in the anti-epidemic work of the Government of the Russian Federation, including export flights, provision of emergency assistance by compatriots abroad, assistance to foreign countries; measures to promote the Russian vaccine in the world, establish its production abroad, and thus win new world markets for medicines; settlement of the pricing crisis on the world oil market with the leading role of Russia and Saudi Arabia; adjustment of double taxation agreements with a number of foreign countries, taking into account the domestic economic needs of the country; the growing experience of BRICS, this interstate association, which did not know the crisis, including its fight against epidemiological diseases, during the period of Russia’s presidency in the BRICS; further steps to deepen integration within the EAEU; Russia’s success in the eastern direction of foreign policy, in the development of trade exchanges and epidemiological cooperation with the ASEAN and APEC states. The new world crisis has become a catalyst for the convergence of ED methods with scientific and public diplomacy, with other diplomatic cultures that can be combined under the general name of civil diplomacy. Such a separation is required to protect the legacy of professional diplomacy, the popularity and use of which methods is growing significantly. ED, as an integral part of official diplomacy, is presented as a mediator between classical and civil diplomacy. It provides civil society with an example of the more rigorous, pragmatic, resultsoriented work that the current pandemic crisis requires.


Author(s):  
Anne-Marie D'Aoust

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) deals with the decision-making processes involved in foreign policy-making. As a field of study, FPA overlaps international relations (IR) theory and comparative politics. Studies that take into account either sex, women, or gender contribute to the development of knowledge on and about women in IR, which is in itself one of the goals of feminist scholarship. There are two main spheres of feminist inquiries when it comes to foreign policy: the role of women as sexed power holders involved in decision-making processes and power-sharing in the realm of foreign policy-making, and the role of gendered norms in the conduct and adoption of foreign policies. Many observers insist that feminism and foreign policy are linked only by a marriage of convenience, designed to either acknowledge the political accomplishments of women in the sphere of foreign policy such as Margaret Thatcher and Indira Ghandi, or bring attention to so-called “women’s issues,” such as reproduction rights and population control. Scholarship on women and/or gender in relation to foreign policy covers a wide range of themes, such as the role of women as political actors in decision-making processes and organizational structures; women’s human rights and gender mainstreaming; the impact of various foreign policies on women’s lives; and the concept of human security and the idea of women’s rights as a valid foreign policy objective. Three paradigms that have been explored as part of the study of women in comparative politics and IR are behavioralism, functionalism, and rational choice theory.


Author(s):  
Athbi Zaid Khalaf

Purpose The purpose of this study is to cover the change that happened in the American foreign policy toward Iran by changing the American leadership from Obama to Trump. In addition to its coverage for the Iranian foreign policy toward the Arab region during the presidency period of Obama in the USA and also during the presidency period of Trump, to discover whether a change has happened in the Iranian foreign policy toward the Arab region is a result of the change in the American foreign policy or not. This can be discovered by concentrating on Yemen, Syria and Iraq, taking into consideration the Iranian and American national interests in the Arab region, as well as the regional role of Iran and its intervention in the Arab region. Design/methodology/approach This study was based on the analytical method of the foreign policy that is based on analyzing facts and events, as well as analyzing the roles and interests within the framework of the states’ foreign policy. This method was used in the study for the purpose of analyzing the impact of the change in the American leadership from Obama to Trump on the US foreign policy toward Iran in the light of the American interest; in addition to the Iranian foreign policy toward the Arab region (Yemen, Syria and Iraq) in the presidency period of both Obama and Trump in light of the regional role of Iran and its passion to achieve its national interest. Findings The study concluded that the change in the American foreign policy toward Iran is a result of the change of the American leadership from Obama to Trump by the American interest requirements in accordance to the respective of both of them. The change in the American policy led to a change in the trends of the Iranian foreign policy toward the Arab region in the term of the regional Iranian role. Under the American and Iranian convergence in the period of Obama, the Iranian role in the Arab region was limited to what could achieve its national interest and what did not threaten the American interest, especially after Iran had guaranteed that the USA is by its side. In the framework of the American and Iranian confrontation under Trump’s current presidency, the Iranian role has expanded in the Arab region, where Iran has intensified its intervention in Yemen, Syria and Iraq politically and militarily. Iran became more threatening to the American interest, as it became a means of pressure to the USA under Trump’s ruling in the purpose of changing its position toward it. Originality/value The importance of the study stems from the fact that it is seeking to analyze the change of the American foreign policy toward Iran within the period of two different presidential years of Obama and Trump, whereas, their trends were different in dealing with Iran between rapprochement and hostility toward it, on the basis of the American interest. In addition to testing whether this change in the American foreign policy toward Iran has been accompanied by a change in the Iranian foreign policy toward the Arab region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertjan Verbeek ◽  
Andrej Zaslove

Despite the populist radical right’s (PRR) popularity among political scientists, little scholarship has focused on its influence on foreign policy. This lack of study is due, in part, to a general lack of attention to the role of political parties in foreign policy, both in comparative politics and international relations (IR). This is unfortunate because, due to Europeanization and globalization, the domain of foreign policy has expanded, making foreign policy increasingly a domestic concern and, most importantly, touching on major themes of PRR parties. Combining insights from comparative politics and IR, we theorize the mechanisms, which may facilitate the impact of such parties on foreign policy. Subsequently, we examine whether the Italian Northern League (LN), as a prime example of a PRR party participating in a coalition government, has had an impact on Italy’s foreign policy and, if so, what accounts for this (lack of) influence. This paper concludes that, unlike common understanding, the PRR is not persistently anti-internationalist/anti-EU; rather, its position depends on the extent to which international politics helps or hinders the promotion of ‘the people’. Second, despite the LN’s strong coalition position, it pursued an effective foreign policy mainly regarding immigration policy. Third, IR theories of junior coalition partners and foreign policy should address the nature of the party system and how inter-party electoral competition affects the strength of a junior coalition partner. Fourth, these theories need to acknowledge that party preferences are sometimes trumped by national concerns, as suggested by more systemic IR theories.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Selman

Peter Selman examines the recent history of intercountry adoption in Europe in the context of the enlarged EU, which contains both receiving and sending countries. The article provides a detailed analysis of the movement of children for adoption between European countries and examines the impact of intercountry adoption on the well-being of children in Europe and current debates in the European Parliament on the future of intercountry adoption in Europe.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-246
Author(s):  
Sonja Jovanović ◽  
Snežana Đekić ◽  
Ivana Ilić

AbstractThe former role of tourism in terms of provision of accommodation and food has become outdated. Tourist offer increasingly includes additional activities, such as visits to various tangible and intangible cultural sites, and events that tourists perceive visually. In the contemporary tourism trends, cultural resources of Southeast European countries have become an important factor that maintains the competitiveness under conditions of the growing competition on a world scale. Cultural resources directly affect tourism, but there is also an inverse relationship reflected in the impact of tourism on cultural resources that are becoming an important factor for the choice of tourist destinations. The subject of this paper is to review the contribution of cultural resources to the development of tourist destinations with the help of the analysis of elements of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index - TTCI.


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