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This paper focuses upon alignment behaviour in the post-Soviet space and seeks to explain why balancing Russia by certain post-Soviet states, despite their numerous efforts to form alliances, has failed. Whereas this failure lies within the explanatory realm of the classical alignment theories, it is more puzzling why some of these post-Soviet states understood the limitations of balancing well and acted accordingly, while others failed to do so at detrimental costs. Trying to explain the failure of balancing Russia, the paper introduces a new theoretical concept that complements the existing alignment theories, and subsequently moves to explain the empirical puzzle of variations in post-Soviet states' assessment of alignment options. In doing so, the paper focuses upon three case studies, namely Georgia and Ukraine on the one hand, that increased their efforts to balance Russia in the last decade and ended up detrimentally, and Azerbaijan on the other hand that refrained from doing so. Unit level variables such as the elites' mis-perceptions/miscalculations of their alignment options as well as distribution of material capabilities, domestic politics and different strategic cultures are employed to explain the variation. The theoretical concept offered in the paper allows for an accurate understanding of alignment behavior in the post-Soviet space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resilience approach has recently emerged as a new topic of EU foreign policy debates and research. This paper adopts a complexity theory perspective to analyze the operationalization of the resilience approach in the EU response to crisis in Ukraine during 2014–2021. Building upon this theory, this paper distinguishes between resilience-as-quality of a complex system and resilience-as-thinking about a complex system. The empirical analysis focuses on the complexity features of non-linearity and self-organizing localization of EU interventions undertaken in the framework of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP). It concludes that the emerging system of intervention displays some complexity qualities, yet the EU crisis response follows the linear and top-down logic embedded in the project-based practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of research is the methodology for assessing the level of economic security of the state from the standpoint of analyzing its foreign trade. The perception of the economic security of countries is not yet unambiguous; it is important to study the theoretical foundations of economic security. In the works of the predecessors, the hierarchy of the concept of economic security was determined and the concept of the economic security of the state was proposed. But most research is not comprehensive enough. The components of the country’s economic security are determined through three groups of risks, but such a division does not take into account most of the threats and is not sufficiently detailed and comprehensive. In the scientific works of economists, the methodology, level, indicators are presented as separate aspects of the formation and management of the economic security of the state. Without denying the significant contribution of these developments, the study noted the lack of a unified methodology for assessing the level of economic security of the country. Accordingly, this study was aimed at presenting a conceptual approach to the methodology for assessing the level of economic security of the country, based on the study of international trade and the main statistical indicators of the economy. The study of the level of economic security of the country is based on the use of indicators built on indicators of the state of the country’s economy and its international trade. The paper studies the dynamics of the main socio-economic indicators of the development of the economies of the associated trio of countries: Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. And also the state of economic security of countries and prospects for further development are determined. It has been established that Ukraine in the pre-war period had a better level of economic security than Georgia and Moldova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pacifism in Russia has historically been weak due to several factors, among which the scares development of civil servative ideology of the maiority of their citizens and the authoritarian nature of their different governments and regimes stand out. Despite the previously described facts, this region has also made surprising and valuable contributions to the cause of peace throughout history, which are worth rescuing and are depicted in this article as precedents of the present day local peace movement. Later on, this paper introduces and describes the current struggle of peace groups both in Russia and Ukraine, emphasizing how activism against the War in Ukraine is particularly complicated in the repressive context of nationalism and war-mongering exaltation in these countries, as well as in an international scenario of crisis of pacifism and boom of narratives that promote the rearmament of the West for fear of the military and economic development of Russia and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of Ukraine's economy into the European space requires the dynamic and balanced development of all its sectors, especially the transport sector. The purpose of the research is to identify the factors related to transport entrepreneurship that affect the economic development of Ukraine, in particular regarding the formation of added value (gross regional product). The paper presents the author's definition of transport entrepreneurship as an independent, systematic, and risky entrepreneurial activity in providing transport services. The results revealed a negative trend in the formation of the added value of the transport enterprises of Ukraine, both in terms of value and as a percentage of GDP. This prompted the authors to determine the factors affecting the formation of gross added value (gross regional product) by transport enterprises of Ukraine to further develop proposals aimed at their activation. Four models were created in the first stage of the research to achieve the goal. These models are based on gross regional product in transport, warehousing, postal and courier activities; gross regional product in transport, warehousing, and postal and courier activities per capita; gross value added in transport, warehousing, and postal and courier activities; and gross value added in transport, warehousing, and postal and courier activities per capita. In the second stage of the research, the fifth model with the highest correlation coefficients was built, which made it possible to identify the factors of negative and positive influence on the formation of gross added value (gross regional product) by transport enterprises in Ukraine. Based on the results, a number of measures are proposed to stimulate factors of positive influence and neutralize negative influence. The proposed tools for identifying the factors related to transport entrepreneurship that affect the economic development of Ukraine can serve as markers for the formation of the country's post-war strategy in the field of transport entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem Statement. Regional socio-economic development is characterized by diversity and multifacetedness and is stipulated with different impacts of factors. Ukraine has a pronounced spatial asymmetry of socio-economic development of regions; therefore, it is an important case for study of various components of regional unevenness. In the present context of post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict, study of uneven development of agrarian potential in Ukraine is becoming increasingly important, whereas it is important to assess and monitor the agrarian potential of regions for economic and food security of the country and regions. Research Methodology. The research focuses on assessment of the agrarian potential development of Ukraine’s regions in 2015 and 2018, rather than on an empirical comparison of the agrarian potential development of regions before and during the post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict. A hierarchical model for assessing the development of the agrarian potential of Ukraine's regions has been elaborated. Based on the factor analysis results, the individual influence of each factor on the development of the agrarian potential of regions was determined. Using the method of ranking and Kohonen Self-Organizing Mapping, the changes in the uneven development of the agrarian potential of Ukraine’s regions during the post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict period were investigated, and the trajectories of the development of this potential were revealed. This paper aims to identify the regional patterns of agrarian potential development and determine the factors that influenced its regional unevenness during the post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict. Results. The research results prove a spatial asymmetry and an increase in regional divergence in the agrarian potential development. The impact of socio-economic and production factors was revealed to grow and the impact of natural resources and macroeconomic factors on the agrarian potential development of the regions was revealed to weaken. The trajectories of agrarian potential development of the regions are determined; they are typified in nine types of trajectories of the agrarian potential development of the regions of Ukraine during the post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict. Recommendations are given on the regional policy in the agrarian sector of Ukraine in order to mitigate the uneven development of agrarian potential in the regions. Given that Ukraine is facing the problem of inconsistency of the institutional environment with the needs of agropotential development, it is very important to implement the institutional transformations, which should focus on harmonization of state and regional policy for the agrarian sector with EU principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to establish conceptual foundations for analyzing the economic dimensions of a territorial military conflict. The Intraregional Trade Disruption from War Simulator (ITDW-Simulator) attempts to estimate the heterogeneous macroeconomic effects of the military conflict. The model suggests two primary indicators and four secondary indicators. The final trade suffocation index (TS-Index) and the final investment desgrowth from war function (− δ w) measure trade disruption's potential impact on international trade patterns and economic development. The agriculture exports, industrial and manufacturing exports, service exports, and FDI flows capture the trade and investment interdependency. The model investigates the impact of the Russo-Ukraine military conflict on the bilateral trade and investment between the Russian Federation and the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of evaluation of the efficiency of employment of the communities' resource potential using different approaches on the example of Lviv region in Ukraine. The proposed methodology secures creation of a rational system of monitoring of the results of activities of amalgamated territorial communities (ATC) and determines what factorial indices should be improved and concerned by the communities' managers to conduct more efficient managerial work in the community. For example, in the communities with the budget that is sufficient to secure the increasing development of the community (Davydiv, Dubliany, Zabolottsi ATC), the primary focus can be done on the social development and growth of the infrastructural base, whereas in the ATCs with the low level of economic development (Volia-Baranetska, Lukiv, Mizhenets ATC), the most important task is to secure the sufficient extended growth of the population's income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Energy security in the EU countries was assessed from two different perspectives. • A new integrated approach based on MCDM methods was used for the assessment. • The level of energy security of EU countries varies and depends on the assessment perspective. • RES-based countries have a high level of energy security. • EU policies need to target decarbonization and increase energy independence. The subject of this article concerns a crucial issue of energy security in the European Union countries, especially during the war in Ukraine. The paper presents the results of a study aimed at assessing the level of energy security of EU-27 countries from two perspectives (for two variants of analysis). The first variant assesses the level of energy security of EU-27 countries, which is derived from a traditional approach related to the availability of energy sources at affordable prices (energy and economic factors). The second variant assesses the level of energy security from the perspective of sustainable development, the so-called sustainable energy security, which, in addition to energy and economic factors, also takes into account environmental and social factors. The multi-criteria nature of the subject matter undertaken determined the adoption of methodology based on Multiple-criteria decision-making methods (MCDM) for the study. Also, the author's integrated approach based on indicator weighting methods and MCDM methods was used. The CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and standard deviation (SD) methods were utilized to determine indicator weights, and the Grey relational analysis (GRA) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods were used for the core part of the research. Based on the proposed research methodology and the results, rankings of the studied countries were created for the two analyzed variants and the levels of energy security were specified. The research was carried out for an 11-year period between 2010 and 2020. The results showed that the level of energy security for some EU countries depends on the assessment variant. Regardless of the assessment variant, the high level of energy security was found in the Scandinavian countries. It is reasonable to use the presented results when developing a new EU energy and climate strategy, which seems absolutely necessary in the new geopolitical situation that has now emerged in the region. The article should also be regarded as a voice in the discussion on the choice of direction and pace of economic transformation in the context of building a sustainable knowledge-based economy and climate neutrality in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]