“We Are from Biafra”. Igbo Students in the USSR during the Civil War in Nigeria, 1967-1970

Drawing on the Russian archival documents the article examines the Soviet policy towards Igbo students who studied in the USSR during the civil war in Nigeria (1967-1970). They sided the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra, Eastern Nigeria, seceded from Nigeria in May 1967. The USSR supported the territorial integrity of Nigeria, provided military and other assistance for the Federal Government in its confrontation with Biafra. However, the Soviet authorities took neutrality in the conflict between Nigerian Embassy in Moscow and Igbo students. They did not expel students at the requests of the Embassy as accomplices of the separatists investigating each case carefully, did not hinder the activity of the Biafrian fellowship. Since the dissemination of Biafrian propagandists production was banned in the USSR, they tried to reach the Soviet audience through appeals from Igbo students who studied in the USSR. The appeals did not include the main issues of Biafrian propaganda to the West: accusations of the Federal Government of the Igbo genocide by Nazi methods and the portrayal of the civil war as a religious conflict - a jihad of the Muslim North against the Igbo as the largest and most organized Christian community in Nigeria. The dominant thesis was about the nature of the civil war as a struggle of the socialist East, Biafra, against the feudal-capitalist North, the central government. The students appealed the Soviet officials to recognize publicly the legitimacy of the Biafrians aspirations for self-determination, to stop supplying arms to the Federal Government and to mediate in a peaceful settlement. There were no responses to the appeals, and they were not made public. Based on archival documents, the author established that the Soviet leadership reasonably feared that Biafra would become the fiefdom of the main geopolitical rivals - the United States and Great Britain. To prevent this USSR entered into an alliance with the federals. The calculation was to enhance the Soviet influence throughout Nigeria, albeit with a reactionary government, rather than support the progressive breakaway Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) and receive nothing.

Mass Media and Conflicts: Media-Geographical Studies

This article presents the results of media geographical studies of publications of American and European mass media covering conflicts and crises of different levels and scales (global, international, regional, and local). Through the prism of media-geographical views on the processes of media reality formation, the author examined mass media approaches of different countries on the topic of coverage. The research methodology included media metric analysis, rank analysis (rank distributions of the popularity of semantic categories for Internet audiences around the world), quantitative and qualitative content analysis of media texts and analysis of publications according to the criteria of the theory of peaceful journalism. The results of the rank analysis illustrated the possibilities of using this method to study the mental landscapes of different countries and regions. Special attention was paid to the interpretation of meanings and their transformation in space and time, as well as to the spatial analysis of big data (based on Google Trends statistics) with an emphasis on the dynamics of changes in media behavior and media consumption of Internet audiences in different time periods. The empirical basis for content analysis was made up of publications of online versions of 10 American and European mass media in English, German and French of 2020. The main result of the study: the majority of media texts — about 80 % — do not contribute to the search for ways of peaceful settlement of conflicts (they abound in emotionally colored vocabulary, negative markers, categorical assessments, journalists do not make attempts to deeply analyze the situation, synthesize different positions and search for creative non-violent ways to resolve contradictions). Mass media publications often become a source of increasing tension in society, the parties of conflicts are represented as antagonists in media texts, journalists fail to establish a connection between them and bridge the gap between their interests. The results of a comparative analysis of media texts according to the criteria of the theory of peaceful journalism allowed us to classify the main approaches for the mass media conflicts covering and develop a number of proposals and recommendations to use in journalistic practice.

Negotiation and mediation as a means of peaceful settlement of international economic disputes

Introduction. Interstate interaction and integration, on the one hand, are the key to the successful functioning of humanity, and on the other hand, they provoke the emergence of international differences and conflicts, including those of an economic nature. Successful settlement of economic differences in accordance with the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes is a necessary condition for strengthening and developing international cooperation. The issue of peaceful settlement of economic disputes, including through the use of diplomatic means, has been studied by such authors as I.V. Grynchak, О.M. Malysheva, Z.V. Tropin, etc. The purpose of the paper is to determine the specifics of negotiation and mediation as political ways to resolve economic disputes peacefully. Results. In international legal doctrine, the most common is the division of peaceful means of resolving international disputes into diplomatic (political) and legal (judicial). The most common are negotiations, good services and mediation, international arbitration. International negotiations, as part of the system of international relations, on the one hand, feel their influence, acting as a tool in solving a range of foreign policy and, in some cases, domestic policy problems, on the other – themselves affect international relations, largely defining and shaping them. The difference between mediation and negotiation is that a third party intervenes in the dispute resolution process with the aim of reconciling the parties. At the same time, the role of the mediator is quite passive, the purpose of his activity is to establish a constructive dialogue between the conflicting states. Therefore, the result of applying this method in some cases can only be reduced to the resumption of negotiations. Conclusion. Negotiation and mediation are diplomatic (political) means of peaceful settlement of international economic disputes. Such means of resolving international economic disputes are used in the presence of a common will of the parties to resolve the conflict, and a common focus on finding a mutually beneficial and compromise solution to the dispute. A key difference between negotiation and mediation is the involvement of a third party in the mediation process, which helps the parties to reach an agreed and compromise solution.

7. The world outside

‘The world outside’ discusses the political idea of Pakistan that had connections to the outside world through the seas and by land. The Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Silk Road, and the Khyber Pass served as corridors for ideas, goods, and armies for Pakistan for thousands of years. The themes of contemporary political imaginations, Cold War geopolitical relations, and post-Cold War globalization are important here. In May 1963, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared that Pakistan has arrived at a peaceful settlement with all neighbouring countries, except India. Ali Bhutto's statement is relevant even today as it calls for a solution to the Kashmir problem.

Conclusion of a Settlement Agreement within the Framework of the Derivative Claim Proceedings

The paper discusses the procedural features of concluding a settlement in the claim involving a corporation-participant for compensation of losses caused by the bodies of a legal entity, and aimed at recognizing as invalid a transaction made by a corporation and applying the consequences of its invalidity on appropriate corporate grounds. The author critically evaluates the procedural order applied to the peaceful settlement of a dispute in an indirect claim, provided for under paragraph 32 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 23 June 2015 No. 25, in terms of the possibility of an independent conclusion of a settlement by a corporation-participant. The author justifies the necessity of obtaining the consent of the corporation for the legal entity participant to conclude a settlement. Particular attention is paid to considering the specifics of concluding a settlement in the event that other members of the corporation join an indirect claim. The paper demonstrates the procedural features of concluding an amicable settlement when considering an indirect claim according to the rules of the class proceedings. To conclude the study, the author dwells on the issue of the need for corporate approval of a settlement containing signs of a major transaction and (or) an interested party transaction concluded within the framework of an indirect claim.

Suveranitatea Republicii Moldova între război şi pace / Sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova between war and peace

This article is dedicated to the analysis of the premises, causes, content and impact of the 1992 war to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, the effect of the Moldovan-Russian Agreement of 21.07.1992 on the principles of peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in the Transnistrian region of Moldova. The paper presents the chronology of historical and geopolitical events related to Bessarabia, annexed in 1812 by the Russian Empire, occupied by the Red Army of the USSR according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 1939, was subject to armed rebellion in 1990-1992, period of disintegration. of the Soviet Union and the self-determination of the Republic of Moldova as a sovereign and independent state.

Arbitration in Syria: Navigating Postwar Disputes

The place of arbitration within the Syrian legal system has received scant academic and professional attention, and as such, remains largely unstudied. Shedding much-needed light on the nature of arbitration in Syria as a resilient form of ancient customary Arab alternative dispute resolution, this contribution appraises the salient features of the Syrian Arbitration Law 2008 and arbitration-related provisions within recent Syrian legislation. It aims to understand the position of arbitration in Syria between existing national and international law frameworks for dispute settlement and to assess the potential for establishing independent, transparent, and efficient tribunals to resolve disputes arising out of ongoing conflicts that have plagued the country since 2011. If arbitration proves to be a mechanism for ordering the peaceful settlement of postwar disputes within and concerning Syria, parties, practitioners, and stakeholders must employ perspectives that include and are capable of navigating Syria’s existing arbitration landscape.

South China Sea

Malaysia’s partial submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on its extended continental shelf beyond 200 nm limit made in December 2019 sparked a new legal battle of diplomatic notes on the South China Sea (scs) from claimant States (Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Viet Nam) and non-claimant States (Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). It has greater volume and significance compared to the first exchange of notes in 2009 – 2011. This article examines the impact of diplomatic notes among claimants on the prospect for the peaceful settlement of the maritime disputes in the scs.

People’s Diplomacy as an Information and Communication Technology: necessity, opportunities, perspectives

The article proves the necessity of implementing socio-humanitarian technologies during ongoing global geopolitical instability. Modern people’s diplomacy is defined as information and communication technology with new qualitative characteristics. The authors (1) provide a definition of people’s diplomacy as a social and humanitarian phenomenon with a range of distinctive characteristics, that differentiates it from public diplomacy or, in particular, cultural diplomacy, and identify the types of public diplomacy and its potential. General theoretical calculations are applied to the relations of Western countries and Ukraine to Russia and Crimea after reunification. Based on the analysis of the modern agenda of discussing the Crimean case in the practice of such international organizations as the UN and the OSCE, the authors raise the question of changing the agenda from interstate to humanitarian. Within the study the authors highlight the scientific type of people’s diplomacy, the attention is focused on the role and opportunities of the international scientific community in the peaceful settlement of the humanitarian problems.