China’s Increasing Investments and Relationships with Sea Line Countries of Indian Ocean: A Geopolitical Strategy

This study aims to investigate how String of Pearls is referred to as a geopolitical strategy adopted by China and a threat to India as India is a growing regional power? China has invested a lot in building its military bases network in the countries of sea lines that are falling on the Indian Ocean. China has also developed commercial facilities and its military bases, which refer to as String of Pearls. This study will find the interest of China in expanding its engagements in the region of the Indian Ocean. China is investing heavily in the construction of ports, roads, military, and commercial bases along with so many huge products in the countries providing China bases to increase its chain of String of Pearls. The study will identify how these investments made by China are paying off back to China. This research paper will cover Chinese investment in Pakistan, Myanmar, Djibouti, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Myanmar, Massawa port Eritrea, Iran, Lamu port Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc.

“The World is Bigger than Five”. Turkey’s Emergence as a Global Actor in World Politics: Prospects and Challenges for Russia

The foreign policy realized by Turkeys president clearly evidences the fact that Erdogan does not accept todays world order as a model for the near future. This has led to the proposition of The World Is Bigger than Five formula since 2013. At least in several key regions, Ankara attempts to change the world order through more than emotional declarations; it uses both hard and soft power in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Black Sea region, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The main indicators of Turkish soft and hard power (military, economic, technological factors, and attractiveness of mass culture) are examined to identify possibilities of Turkey to change the balance of power in key regions and on a global scale. From 2007, the vision of Turkey as an influential actor globally has been propagated by the Turkish elite of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Geopolitical, civilizational, and systematic approaches are used. The research process is carried out within the paradigm of classical and critical geopolitics. During the AKPs time in power, moderate Islamists gave Turkey a new impetus - a return to its civilizational roots. One must note the states development of its economy, military-industrial complex, and the new national position globally as a patron of every Muslim. Modern Turkey can be considered a great regional power with sectoral global leadership in its military attainment, and due to the attractiveness of its model of development. Ankara invests heavily in soft power, its success is based on the Turkish development ideology, which represents a synthesis of neo-Ottoman, neo-Pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic ideas. The revival of Turkey as a regional power and its desire to become a world power will inevitably increase the space of contradictions in Russian-Turkish relations, reducing the sphere of cooperation between the two countries.

Imperial dream: the RILA as achievement of the second reign’s diplomatic objective for Paraguay

This work has the purpose of presenting the LAIR (Latin American Integration Route) as the achievement of diplomatic objectives already traced in the Brazilian imperial era between itself and Paraguay. This paper will show how, in the diplomatic field, the Empire can be qualified as the historical period which designed Brazil, fixing it as a regional power and positioning itself in the way of ensuring policies whose consequences would be beneficial even for its neighbors. The border relations between Brazil and Paraguay will be treated with its peculiarities, besides a description of the region’s hydrography with regards to the River Plate Basin. So, this work will enter in its historical part by analyzing the formation of the Brazilian Empire’s Second Reign, explaining its development and characteristics that interest to this paper, presenting its diplomatic conceptions, showing the problems faced by the tropical monarchy in the Platine Region and the objectives and paths searched to bypass them. In the end, it will be brought to analysis the idea of the LAIR and its Latin American integration project, with investments aiming to use the region’s hydrography to export local products, linking it with the geopolitical objective searched since imperial times to guarantee the free access to the Platine rivers. This research utilized qualitative methodology, analyzing books and articles in the area to base the central thesis. The result achieved met the original goal, showing that the LAIR comes from the development of a conception of foreign relations created, for Brazil, in the Monarchy.

The electric substations compensating devices’ distribution optimization

The article discusses methods for calculating electrical networks when choosing the consumer compensating devices’ location. The main network and calculation module of a complex network is analyzed. The mathematical support of the reactive power factor compensation (PFC) problem is described in regional power systems, the areas of application of individual models are substantiated, and the results of the practical use of the corresponding calculation results are analyzed.

The Four Petty Kingdoms of Upplǫnd: Equestrian Graves and the Political Integration of the Norwegian Highlands in Late Viking Age Norway

In continental and north-western Europe armed cavalry – aided by the introduction of the stirrup – was closely linked to the emergence of feudalism but was this also the case in Scandinavia? Were the resulting military specialists linked to the growing national kingdoms, or to local and regional power spheres ruled by petty kings? I will investigate this in the historical region of Upplǫnd – the last Norse area to be integrated into the Kingdom of Norway by Óláfr Haraldsson around AD 1020. Two thirds of Norway’s 51 known equestrian graves are located in this inland area and I will employ a novel way of investigating their relationship to local administrative units, such as þriðjungar (thirds), herǫð (hundreds), and not least fjórðungar (fourths), as well as travel routes and settlements. There is little that suggests that these graves were linked to an early national aristocracy, and its ruling Scandinavian dynasty – Ynglingene – as has been argued in previous research. Equestrian grave traditions survived longer in Upplǫnd than elsewhere in Scandinavia, which was not Christianised until the 11th century, and it is unlikely that the buried had served the uniting and converting King Óláfr. It is also difficult to establish links between historically known lendr menn (the most prominent retainers of the king) families, and such graves. However, a new revelation is that the farms where such graves were located, were situated along the boundaries between local fjórðungar, which were judicial districts, as well as subsidiaries of local military administration in the herǫð. This suggests that these locations had important warning and supervision roles in local military systems.