scholarly journals MEETING THE BURDEN OF STATEHOOD: IS KOSOVO READY?

Author(s):  
Gregory R. Copley

There is ample evidence that Kosovo has no legitimacy in the normal sense of a sovereign state, and that, if it was to be recognized as such, it would further erode the credibility of the international system. Kosovo does not meet any historical standards for sovereignty. For Kosovo to be recognized as a legitimate sovereign state, the international community must violate the sovereignty of another recognized state, the Republic of Serbia. One should also take to consideration that Kosovo is already a territory run as a criminal enterprise, with links into jihadist movements. Already Kosovo is becoming like Afghanistan under the Taliban. And like the Taliban destruction of the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan, the Albanian Islamist process of destruction of the Christian Churches will be complete if Kosovo is granted independence. The chaos of changing borders— such as we are seeing today in the Balkans, and elsewhere — is fertile ground for criminality. Europe is a major target for the global jihadist movements, and not only those under the al-Qaida label, but also those fi nanced and logistically made viable by the Iranian Government. Western fears have been strengthened by intelligence derived by European countries on the existence of a strong Islamist network in Kosovo and Bosnia. The “al-Qaida” phenomenon owes its success to the fi nancial links with what we are calling the Albanian mafi a, just as the Albanian criminals owe their success to the logistics and networks of al-Qaida. As far as Islamists are concerned, their goal is consolidation of their control over parts of the Balkans, specifi cally the so-called “Green transversal” belt which links the Adriatic Coast through Albania, FYR of Macedonia, the Serbian Kosovo and Metohija region, the southern Serbia/northern Montenegro Rashka (Sanjak) region, through the Gorazde Corridor into Bosnia, not only as a terrorist corridor but also to facilitate a clear highway for narco-traffi cking and weapons shipments. Signifi cantly, the Serbian Government within the union of Serbia & Montenegro, had, until the recent Serbian elections, attempted to ignore the growing incitement to a new outbreak of violence and unrest on the part of the Muslim community of southern Serbia (Rashka) and Kosovo because it did not wish to be seen to be drawing attention to the growing Muslim agitation. Finally, Kosovo Liberation Army still, and is able to access much of its narcotic product, because of its close interrelationship with jihadist movements worldwide and foreign state sponsors. There is no ground for optimism in the future. The wars to break up Yugoslavia are still unfi nalized. And in many of the new wars we will see savagery abound as groups “re-discover” old identities, and seek to capitalize on the permissive climate of change and chaos. However, it not just Balkans that is endangered. Deeply placed sources within the Islamist community in Kosovo have identifi ed the source and type of the explosives used in the jihadist terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005, and the Madrid commuter railway bombings of March 11, 2004.

Focaal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Vasiliki P. Neofotistos

Using the Republic of North Macedonia as a case study, this article analyzes the processes through which national sports teams’ losing performance acquires a broad social and political significance. I explore claims to sporting victory as a direct product of political forces in countries located at the bottom of the global hierarchy that participate in a wider system of coercive rule, frequently referred to as empire. I also analyze how public celebrations of claimed sporting victories are intertwined with nation-building efforts, especially toward the global legitimization of a particular version of national history and heritage. The North Macedonia case provides a fruitful lens through which we can better understand unfolding sociopolitical developments, whereby imaginings of the global interlock with local interests and needs, in the Balkans and beyond.


Author(s):  
Konstantina Zanou

Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800–1850: Stammering the Nation investigates the long process of transition from a world of empires to a world of nation-states by narrating the biographies of a group of people who were born within empires but came of age surrounded by the emerging vocabulary of nationalism, much of which they themselves created. It is the story of a generation of intellectuals and political thinkers from the Ionian Islands who experienced the collapse of the Republic of Venice and the dissolution of the common cultural and political space of the Adriatic, and who contributed to the creation of Italian and Greek nationalisms. By uncovering this forgotten intellectual universe, Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean retrieves a world characterized by multiple cultural, intellectual, and political affiliations that have since been buried by the conventional narrative of the formation of nation-states. The book rethinks the origins of Italian and Greek nationalisms and states, highlighting the intellectual connection between the Italian peninsula, Greece, and Russia, and re-establishing the lost link between the changing geopolitical contexts of western Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans in the Age of Revolutions. It re-inscribes important intellectuals and political figures, considered ‘national fathers’ of Italy and Greece (such as Ugo Foscolo, Dionysios Solomos, Ioannis Kapodistrias, and Niccolò Tommaseo), into their regional and multicultural context, and shows how nations emerged from an intermingling, rather than a clash, of ideas concerning empire and liberalism, Enlightenment and religion, revolution and conservatism, and East and West.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 429-439
Author(s):  
Boğaç Erozan

Established in 1923, Turkey has been a republic without a dominant republican conception of liberty. A chance to install such a conception was missed in the early republican period and never recaptured. The republic was unable to get rid of vestiges of the authoritarian tradition of the past. Centuries-old authoritarian tradition persisted well into the recent and the contemporary periods. Presenting ample evidence, the article underlines the weight of history and the legacy of authoritarian mentality that promoted the use of authority, not liberty, in political problem-solving. The initial failure to abandon an authoritarian problem-solving approach proved fateful for the chances of the deepening of democracy in Turkey.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Muzaffar Nurbaev ◽  

The world community will turn into a common international system. States, which are a separate independent part of this universal system, develop in all spheres in interaction, interdependence and interdependence. Each individual state can benefit from the best practices of another state in the field of political, legal, legislative and state building.Naturally, the study of the experience of foreign parliamentarism is of great importance for Uzbekistan, which democratically restructures its political and legal system and moves towards the formation of a bicameral legislature through parliamentary reforms. Over the past two hundred years of the historical development of parliamentarism, an incredibly rich and meaningful experience has been accumulated. No matter how diverse the diversity in this regard, comparing the activities of existing parliaments on the planet, it will be possible to identify all important aspects, common features and features of this state-legal phenomenon. The essence, traditions and general laws of parliamentarism can be understood by comparing the legislative practice that has developed in advanced countries with the procedures formed in them. At the same time, it should be noted that a number of rare works have been published based on a comparison of the experience of different parliaments


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 829-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minda Holm ◽  
Ole Jacob Sending

AbstractThe symbolic structure of the international system, organised around sovereignty, is sustained by an institutional infrastructure that shapes how states seek sovereign agency. We investigate how the modern legal category of the state is an institutional expression of the idea of the state as a liberal person, dependent on a one-off recognition in establishing the sovereign state. We then discuss how this institutional rule coexists with the ongoing frustrated search for recognition in terms of sociopolitical registers. While the first set of rules establishes a protective shield against others, regardless of behaviour, the second set of rules specify rules for behaviour of statehood, which produces a distinct form of misrecognition. States are, at one level, already recognised as sovereign and are granted rights akin to individuals in liberal thought, and yet they are continually misrecognised in their quest to actualise the sovereign agency they associate with statehood. We draw on examples from two contemporary phenomena – fragile states, and assertions of non-interference and sovereignty from the populist right and non-Western great powers, to discuss the misrecognition processes embedded in the bifurcated symbolic structure of sovereignty, and its implications for debates about hierarchy and sovereignty in world affairs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Widhi Setyo Putro

This article discusses the national consensus between the Republic of Indonesia (RI) and the Bijeenkomst voor Federaal Overleg (BFO) which embodied in the 1949 Inter-Indonesia Conference. Using conflict and consensus theory of Ralf Dahrendorf, this article seeks to understand the conflicts of interest background and the process towards a consensus between RI and BFO. The conflict between RI and BFO motivated by the Dutch aimed to control Indonesia. One of his efforts was to divide the Indonesian nation by forming states, which led to a conflict between the Republicans (Republicans) who supported the united state, and the federalists (BFO) in favor of the federal state. The study found that the Dutch federal policy was not entirely a success because the federalists which incorporated in BFO was not affected. The conflict between the Republican and federalists subsided with the implementation of the Goodwill Mission and the sending of the BFO Liaison Commission to meet Indonesian leaders detained after the Dutch Military Aggression II. The summit was a national consensus between RI and BFO, it embodied in the Inter-Indonesia Conference in 1949 which took placed at Yogyakarta and Jakarta. They reached a consensus by agreeing on fundamental issues as the identity of a sovereign state, such as the name of the country, Merah Putih as the official flag, Bahasa Indonesia as the official language, and the Indonesia Raya as the national anthem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Yaroslav Kushnir ◽  

This article provides a comprehensive study in areas of counteraction to the temporarily occupied territories of a sovereign state. Regulations, doctrinal approaches, international experience serve as a subject to this study in the context of a set of functional national activities of states that have faced the issue of territories’ separation. Particular attention is paid to foreign experience in counteracting the temporary occupation through the prism of the Republic of Cyprus which held an activity to counter the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, as one of the most successful examples of confrontation with the temporarily occupied territories for a long time and comparing Ukraine's activities in this field. To this end, the author conducts a comprehensive analysis of measures aimed at combating the spread and recognition of the temporarily occupied territories of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the scientific achievements of international scientists who have studied this issue. Analyzing these objects, the author carries out the qualification based on the criteria of differentiation of measures accepted by foreign scientists and determines which measures were implemented to solve the same problem in Ukraine. Given the personal experience of operational and service activities of the author and a deep awareness of this topic, it is proposed to expand the generally accepted areas of counteraction. The author provides the grounding of additional direction on how to counter the expansion and recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories, disclosing a complex of measures which were, and can be introduced for its realization. The result of this study is the formation of the author's approach to defining the complex concept of «counteraction to temporary occupation», the formation of a list of national measures to combat the temporarily occupied territories, and their classification, as well as proposals for the most effective countermeasures and their further use in law enforcement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-456
Author(s):  
Liliane Klein Garcia

Ao observar o sistema unipolar que emergiu do final da Guerra Fria, é marcante o sentimento de insegurança geopolítica gerada pela existência de apenas uma superpotência global e as dúvidas da atuação do Estado soberano nessa conjuntura. Nesse paradigma, Capitão América: Guerra Civil é lançado com uma simbologia contestadora do papel do hegemon no sistema internacional. Com isso, inicialmente é exposto o enredo do filme, seguido das teorias liberal e realista das Relações Internacionais e da semiótica greimasiana. Com isso em vista, é feita a análise dos símbolos do longa-metragem e, por fim, se conclui que os autores do texto tinham como objetivo disseminar uma mensagem de união política entre os americanos.     Abstract: Observing the unipolar system emerging from the closure of the Cold War, is remarkable the sentiment of geopolitical insecurity generated by the existence of only one global superpower and the doubts about the role of the sovereign State in such system. In this paradigm, Captain America: Civil War is released with a contesting symbology about the role of the hegemon in the international system. Therefore, first it is exposed the movie plot, followed by the liberal and realist theories of international relations and the French semiotics. With this in mind, the symbols in the feature are analised and, in conclusion, it is stated that the authors wish to convey a message in bipartisan union amongst the American people. Keywords: International Relations Theory, Semiotics, Captain America.     Recebido em: setembro/2019. Aprovado em: maio/2020.


Author(s):  
Sam Klug

Abstract This article charts how African American appeals to international law shifted away from a politics of petition to a politics of sovereignty with the growing influence of postcolonial states in international society and the UN’s recognition of a right to self-determination. Whereas earlier efforts by African-descended peoples in the Americas to gain a hearing before international bodies often required pushing the boundaries of international legal personality to include entities other than states, in the late 1960s and early 1970s a black nationalist group called the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) pursued international subjectivity in its traditional and fullest form: as a sovereign state. Examining the writings of RNA leaders, especially Imari Obadele, this article explores how the group’s claims for territory, reparations, and international subjectivity relied on international legal discourse about plebiscites, self-determination, and national development.


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