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It is noteworthy that as the Russia-Ukraine war enters its third year, China still maintains a firm position consistent with that of the previous year, endeavouring to promote peace talks and ceasefires. This paper employs the content analysis of 97 academic papers on the Ukraine Crisis in Chinese core journals (CSSCI) from February 22, 2022, to February 22, 2024. The research results suggest that Chinese scholars offer a multidimensional analysis of the development of the Russia-Ukraine war. The paper concludes through content analysis and comparison that Chinese scholars share the same stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict as Chinese officials. First, Chinese scholars call for promoting the transformation of the global energy system, accelerating the development and use of new energy sources, and promoting the development of innovative capabilities to cope with the multiple crises caused by economic sanctions. Second, the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated multiple global security crises and traditional and non-traditional security issues, severely affected the global security system, and created a new security dilemma. Third, scholars advocate the concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind” and build a post-Russia-Ukraine war world security pattern.

The object of this paper is a geopolitical analysis of the great powers’ competition in the Balkans. The main reason for the research is the unquestionable impact that the Ukrainian crisis, which is divided in the paper into two phases, has on the Balkans. The authors emphasised that competition between the US and Russia is dominant, while China is geopolitically suppressed. For the US, the main geopolitical framework is Euro-Atlanticism and the policy of NATO enlargement as its most important instrument. Also, it was argued that the EU’s approach is completely complementary to NATO’s. Regarding Russia, the phases of the neoEurasian geopolitical concept and their influence on practical policy were explored. Russia’s primary goal is to prevent further NATO expansion, but that policy has experienced several failures in the Balkans. Four scenarios for ending military operations in Ukraine were analysed and their influence on the Balkans assessed. The main conclusion is that the Balkans will continue to be the object of competition between the great powers, and that the extent to which the balance of power between Euro-Atlanticism and Eurasianism will be possible will depend on the outcome of the current Ukrainian crisis.

The paper emphasises the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in modern society. In the introductory part of the paper, the authors describe different terms, such as “information environment”, “information superiority”, “information warfare” (IW), and “information operations” (IO). The authors analyse the concepts of IW of the United States of America (US), China, and Russia. The mentioned research subject is directly related to the objective of the paper, aimed at emphasising and explaining strategic documents, manuals, handbooks, and other documents, given in the second part of the paper. The result of the research is the identification of similarities and differences in perceptions and views about information warfare. The authors conclude that at the present moment, all three countries are aware of the importance of information and ICT, especially in the case of armed conflict. The information space is increasingly an area of conflict between the mentioned countries, both in peace and in war. It is estimated that their importance will grow in the future. The advantage and dominance that the US used to have are decreasing in relation to the competitors.

The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the objective of India’s joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The significance of this research lies in finding the correlation between the norms adopted by the organisation and the real reason for a country’s joining that organisation. Similarly, special attention has been paid to the concept of international organisations as norm disseminators. The paper first discusses the normative theory of international relations and tries to bridge it with international organisations (IOs). Additionally, the paper assesses the role played by norms in driving international organisations or vice versa. The main argument is that India has adopted a cooperation and competition approach to the SCO, considering its bitter relations with China and Pakistan. This is a qualitative study that considers primary and secondary sources to connect the theoretical understanding with the empirical study.

We are witnessing the trend of relative economic and, consequently, political weakening of America and the West and a constant rise of the “rest of the world”, primarily China, whose economic growth, despite slowing down in recent years, is still three times faster than that in the EU and the US. Given that the strategies and policies of great powers, as well as of smaller countries like Serbia, depend on it, in this paper, we try to answer the question of whether the world is in the process of becoming bipolar, multipolar, or whether some form of unipolarity will persist. We start with the definition of polarity in neo-realist terms. We generally accept that after the end of the Cold War, there was a moment of unipolar US dominance, coupled with its hegemony, but this moment has largely passed. However, we are faced with the situation that there has been no clear emergence of either a new bipolar or multipolar order. We cannot argue that Beijing is the other pole of power since only the US has functional alliances that carry weight economically and militarily. And, if we are witnessing the emergence of multipolarity, that is the one that is still fundamentally asymmetric in America’s favour since Washington’s actions predominantly determine the main currents of global geopolitical processes. Thus, we claim that the global order is shaped as an unbalanced multipolarity, with the caveat that the role and strength of poles are in modern times considerably less important than before due to the processes of globalisation and economic interdependency.

China has been steadily increasing the level of its investment projects in Serbia since 2010. With Serbia joining its two very important initiatives, the 17+1 and the Belt and Road, those investments have grown exponentially. The projects vary in size and are placed in different sectors, with infrastructure projects as leading ones. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the achieved results of Chinese investment projects in Serbia connected to the Belt and Road Initiative from the economic point of view. At the same time, the author will present the list of potential risks for Serbia arising from those projects. The analysed data span from 2014 to May 2020, and they were collected from various sources and evaluated with content analysis. The risks were analysed by applying a scenario method. From an empirical standpoint, this paper will give a new perspective on the risks that Serbia is facing concerning the BRI projects, in the light of changes in the domestic and international environment, especially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author concludes that the BRI projects in Serbia contribute to the Serbian economic development, but at the same time, Serbia is facing two major risks – loan repayment and failure to comply with ecological standards.

The paper elaborates on the geostrategic significance of the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Sea in the past, as a precondition for consideration of current and future events in this macro-region. The author firstly considers the manifestation of the power, influence and interests of the great powers in the Mediterranean through a historical and spatial perspective. The paper analyses political and economic changes in the Mediterranean through the theoretical and practical approach of great powers` navies engagement. The author points out that the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of the Mediterranean will further increase in the future, as a result of constant regional and global aspirations to increase the political and economic dynamics of this region. The growing competition between the United States and China will have a direct impact on the Mediterranean. The author concludes that the Mediterranean will remain a „testing polygon“ for the United States, China and Russia, and a region in which political and economic processes and strategic changes in the world could be witnessed most obviously.

In the past decade, Sino-Serbian relations have been at unprecedented heights, with China becoming one of Serbia’s top trading partners and investors. At the same time, the strained relations between the EU and China, and especially between the US and China, pose a challenge for Serbia. The country is caught between its EU aspirations and orientation towards the global West on the one hand and its socialist heritage on the other. In this context, this paper employs a multifaceted approach to analyse Serbian public opinion towards China, presenting prevalent perceptions and positing underlying determinants. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, a nationally representative survey is studied, and the results are interpreted in the context of historical realities, contemporary economic ties, and local and geopolitical considerations. Key findings underscore the significance of economic well-being, local politics, and global power dynamics for shaping public sentiment. Furthermore, it is shown that contemporary sentiments reshape perceptions of historical periods, even for those who lived through them. This research highlights the complexity of factors steering public opinion while at the same time emphasising its malleability. Providing a nuanced portrayal of perceptions underpinning the Sino-Serbian “Iron Friendship”, this research contributes to a broader understanding of the intricate dynamics characterising contemporary international relations.

The aim of this paper is to project the future dynamics of US-China relations and assess the associated risks of bifurcation of the global economy between the two blocs. The United States and China face a strategic paradox in their long-term competition to research, develop, and acquire new and emerging technologies. In the commercial sphere, the two nations’ research and development (R&D) of emerging technologies is now deeply integrated, potentially providing mutual benefits to each country’s markets. However, despite their commercial interconnectedness, national security planners in each country continue to view each other as potential adversaries. By using the methods of explanatory research and an inductive approach for analysing the management of technological innovation and economic development, the authors argue that China’s economic transformation towards the upper end of global industrial value chains and the seizure of entire product ranges or supply chains have put at risk the US’s hegemonic status. By imposing export sanctions, the United States is trying to force technological decoupling and disable the functioning of global supply chains in the domains critical for Chinese high-tech in order to slow down or contain China’s technological and economic rise. Consequently, the conclusion drawn is that the United States will continue its efforts to maintain primacy over China in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and nanotechnology, by mobilising investments in research and development as well as by using export bans and other kinds of sanctions. In this way, it is likely that a state of cohabitation between the two trading blocs will be developed, which would create the conditions for the evolution of the strained relations between the US and China.