Search

Since the mid-2010s, Germany has significantly adjusted its approaches to the use of the Bundeswehr, pivoting its strategic focus from regions distant from the Euro-Atlantic community to those within or near it. This has underscored the pressing need to address issues related to securing steadfast allies in Eastern Europe and enhancing cooperation with them. This article aims to explore the current evolution of German-Lithuanian re­lations in both political and military domains. The approach of Germany to the factor of historical memory is demonstrated, along with its aspiration to position itself as the defender of Lithuanian national sovereignty. Yet, there was a notable lack of strategic focus from Germany towards Lithuania in the early 21st century, contributing to a decline in bilateral relations in 2014 and 2015. Amid the confrontation between the ‘Western democracies’ and Russia, Germany adopted a strategy of gradually but steadily increasing pressure on the opponent. The perception of this approach by Lithuanian elites has shifted from negative in the mid-2010s to increasingly positive as Germany has become more involved in deterrence of Russia. This article explores the process of the Bundeswehr troops’ deployment and buildup up to having constituted the ‘core’ of a multinational brigade in Lithuania under NATO’s mandate. The study focuses on the im­pact of military cooperation on political collaborations, as illustrated by the case of the B3 + 1 format, which has brought together high-ranking public officials from the three Baltic states and Germany since 2018. It is concluded that Germany has developed a dependence on Lithuania, driven by the increased desire of the former state to maintain the latter as a reliable junior partner.

The most urgent global concerns revolve around environmental degradation and climate change. The potential approach to address these challenges is the implementation of a transition towards renewable energy sources. The acquisition of capital plays a crucial role in facilitating the transition towards clean energy. The government sector has demonstrated a lack of adequate funds in numerous instances. Given the substantial financial requirements associated with renewable energy, it is imperative to establish partnerships with the private sector. Hence, this study examines the influence of public-private partnership investments on renewable energy, specifically focusing on the significance of political cooperation, R&D expenditures, and technological innovation in China and India from 1990 to 2021. We used panel ARDL and the Pairwise Granger causality tests for analysis. The findings revealed that public-private partnerships, R&D investments, and political cooperation enhance renewable energy whereas, technology impedes renewable energy. The results of the causality test confirm that there exists a bidirectional relationship between investments in research and development and renewable energy. Additionally, the analysis reveals a unidirectional relationship between technology and renewable energy. The study suggested policy implications for guiding investments in public-private partnerships within the energy sector to enhance renewable energy generation and safeguard environmental integrity.

Objective: The research aimed to examine the strength and nature of the UK’s relations with China under new circumstances caused by Brexit. Specifically, this article attempts to answer what was the impact of Brexit on economic and political relations between the UK and its significant economic partner, China. In pursuance of the goal, the authors discuss the economic and political implications of a new status quo in bilateral cooperation in the field of trade and investment and the political aspects of Brexit for both partners. Research Design & Methods: We explored the UK-China relationship in the context of Brexit implications using a literature analysis and examined the strength and nature of economic relations between countries mentioned above using the trade orientation and intensity indicators. Findings: Brexit created a new landscape for bilateral cooperation between the UK and its partners worldwide. The long-term consequences of Brexit will continue to unfold in years to come, but we may already recognize some early trends in bilateral relations. The analysis of the UK’s trade orientation based on the historical data for the period 2013-2022 revealed the decreasing significance of Germany and the increasing position of China and the United States as the UK’s trading partners. Moreover, the analysis of trade intensity revealed the lowest trade intensity between the UK and China post-2012 compared with Germany and the US. Nevertheless, the values of the trade intensity index with China indicate that there is still potential to increase exports to China. Implications & Recommendations: The proposed set of indicators can serve to question the major tendencies of bilateral trade. Together, the indicators portray a comprehensive picture of interdependence and the strength of existing connections between two countries and help examine whether cooperation is strengthening or weakening. The orientation index identifies the strength and importance of the relationship with the trading partner relative to other trade relations’ significance and monitors the progress of the cooperation, while the trade intensity index can be used to determine whether the value of trade between two countries is greater or smaller than expected based on their importance in world trade. The analysis results will allow scholars to determine possible actions that should be undertaken by the UK and – possibly – the EU to develop trade and investment cooperation with China in a more balanced way. Contribution & Value Added: The article extends the knowledge of Brexit’s economic and political implications for UK-China bilateral cooperation. Furthermore, the article presents a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the current UK-China relations in the context of Brexit. We examined economic relations between the countries mentioned by means of trade orientation and intensity indicators.

The revolutionary process of 1917–22 demonstrates the variety of instruments for cooperation throughout the period under the study. The February Regime and the regimes of ‘democratic counter-revolution’ were based on the ideas of political solidarity as the foundation for building a new Russian state. The October (the Bolshevik) regime and the White Movement offered various options for political cooperation. The author proposes to consider this process not only on a country scale, however also within the framework of Voronezh province.

From the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Peloponnese became a zone of civilization borderland, where Greek and Western European ethnocultural communities coexisted and interacted with each other. For a long time, they had been in a state of permanent war, but over time, their relationship began to change. By the mid-fourteenth century, the changes became especially evident as the balance of power in the Peloponnese shifted in favour of the Byzantines. This article analyses the evolution of military and political cooperation between the Greeks and the Franks in the Peloponnese between the 1340s and 1370s. Based on data from historical writings, the author examines the reasons for cooperation between the Franks and the Greeks, identifies the motives of each side for such interaction and new features which expressed the evolution of their military and political contacts. The study demonstrates that on the part of the barony of Achaea, the rapprochement with the Greeks was promoted by disillusionment with the Angevin administration of the principality. For the Byzantines, peace and cooperation were beneficial for security reasons and for strengthening the internal organisation of the Despotate of the Morea. The main motivation for this military and political alliance between the Greeks and the Franks was the need to protect the Peloponnese from external attacks. The author concludes that the alliance between a part of the Achaean barons and the despot Manuel Kantakouzenos indicated the emergence of a new, more complex model of Graeco-Latin relations in the Peloponnese. The evolution of the military and political cooperation between the parties was expressed in its unprecedented stability and duration in comparison with previous situational agreements. Unlike before, the political course of the despot was consistent. For a long time, he avoided any military actions against the neighbours who were also complying with agreements. Their military and political cooperation between the 1350s and 1360s gave a visible result and showed the fruitfulness of such a relationship model.

As Brexit removes the Nordic countries’ most powerful ally from the EU, what does this imply for their approach to European affairs? The literature on small states within the EU suggests that they can counterbalance limited bargaining capacities by entering two types of alliances: strategic partnerships with bigger member states and institutionalised cooperation on a regional basis. Against this backdrop we ask whether, by significantly raising the costs of non-cooperation for Nordic governments, the Brexit referendum has triggered a revival of Nordic political cooperation. We scrutinise this conjecture by analysing Nordic strategies of coalition-building on EU financial and budgetary policy, specifically looking at attempts to reform Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union and proposals to strengthen the EU’s fiscal powers. We find that Nordic governments have successfully collaborated on these issues in the context of new alliances such as the ‘New Hanseatic League’ or the ‘Frugal Four.’ Yet, their coalition-building strategies rely on relatively loose and issue-specific alliances rather than an institutionalisation of Nordic political cooperation, implying that this revival of Nordic political cooperation hardly involves the institutions of ‘official’ Nordic cooperation. We argue that this reflects lasting differences among the Nordics’ approach to the EU as well as electorates’ scepticism about supranational institution-building, implying that ‘reluctant Europeans’ are often also ‘reluctant Scandinavians.’

The aim of this article is to investigate on the European efforts to keep détente alive during the 1980’s, focusing in particular on the relations with the Soviet Union. The European policy will be analysed from the peculiar perspective of the European Political Cooperation (EPC), the mechanism of coordination of the European Community (EC) member states foreign policies, which anticipated the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSR) established by the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. The article is divided in two parts: after a short description of the EPC’s functioning and of its main achievements during the 1970’s, the first part addresses the European interest in revitalizing détente in the first half of the 1980’s, focusing in particular on the Polish case in 1981. The second part deals with the issue of the relationship between the EC and Soviet Union after the Single European Act (SEA) signature in 1986. Although the Single European Act was not originally designed to deal with foreign policy issues, as its main goal was to complete the Single market, it represented a significant stage also for the development of a European foreign policy. For the first time it included the scope of a common foreign policy, linking the EC procedures, in a single legal instrument to the EPC. The article will deal with the issue of “consistency”, or, in other words, the increasing recourse made by EPC to EC instruments (and vice-versa) as sanctions or the use of conditionality in economic assistance, in order to further EC’s policies. In particular the article will investigate if the completion of the Single market and the revival of European integration in the second half of the 1980’s affected USSR policy, wondering in particular if it influenced the development of Gorbachev’s project of a European common home. L’articolo descrive gli sforzi delle nazioni europee di mantenere in vita il processo di distensione tra i due blocchi durante la prima metà degli anni Ottanta, analizzando in particolare le relazioni tra la Cee e l’Unione Sovietica. La politica europea verrà ricostruita attraverso la prospettiva della Cooperazione Politica Europea (CPE), il meccanismo di coordinamento delle politiche estere dei paesi membri della CEE, che ha preceduto la PESC, creata con il Trattato di Maastricht del 1992. L’articolo è diviso in due parti: dopo una sintetica descrizione della CPE, del suo funzionamento e dei suoi principali successi nel corso degli anni Settanta, la prima parte ricostruisce le principali iniziative delle nazioni europee tese a rivitalizzare la distensione nella prima metà degli anni Ottanta, analizzando in particolare il caso della Polonia nel 1981. La seconda parte ricostruisce invece le relazioni tra la Cee e l’Unione Sovietica dopo la firma dell’Atto Unico Europeo nel 1986. Sebbene l’Atto Unico Europeo sia soprattutto ricordato per avere completato e dato vita al mercato unico, esso rappresentò un importante momento di svolta anche per lo sviluppo di una politica estera europea. Finalmente la CPE veniva inserita e diventava parte integrante dei Trattati. L’articolo si sofferma in particolare sull’importanza del principio di “coerenza” tra le dichiarazioni politiche adottate dai governi con la CPE e il crescente ricorso da parte della CEE a forme di assistenza economica condizionata o a sanzioni economiche. In particolare, l’articolo cercherà di comprendere se il completamento del mercato unico e il rilancio dell’integrazione europea nella seconda metà degli anni Ottanta influenzarono la politica estera dell’URSS e il progetto di Casa Comune europea di Gorbacëv. Parole chiave: Détente, Cooperazione politica europea, Mercato commune europeo, principio di coerenza, Mikhail Gorbacëv, Casa comune europea

With a historical approach, this paper examines the Nixon administration’s policy and stance towards the European Political Cooperation (the EPC). In December 1969, at The Hague Summit the leaders of the European Community expressed their determination for deepening European integration. The final communiqué of The Hague Summit stressed the European Community’s desire to achieve the EPC and to parallel the European Community’s increasing economic strength with a role to play in the world affairs. With this in mind, the paper will examine the impacts that Nixon administration’s attempts to rebalance U.S. foreign relations reflected in the opening to China and the détente with the Soviet Union had on the European political integration. Then, it will be argued that the Nixon administration’s shifting of foreign policy priorities can be seen as one of the driving forces of the EPC. The paper puts forth that a European Community, whose weight was increased first by its economic integration and then by its political cooperation, was seen by the Nixon administration as a challenge to the United States. It is concluded that after a long time of consistently supporting European integration as a means to secure peace and prosperity in Europe, the United States under the Nixon administration had to reconsider its foreign relations and rebalance its focus on the global chessboard. This rebalancing certainly impacted the EPC in particular and the European integration process in general.

The article focuses on the European Parliament and the development of the European Political Cooperation (EPC), the first attempt to harmonize EC member states’ national foreign policies into a single European framework. Being an intergovernmental policy, developing outside of the Treaties, the European Parliament had no official role in the development of the EPC. Yet, it challenged member states’ monopoly over foreign relations through some autonomous initiatives and forced them to accept small increase in the Parliament’s powers of scrutiny over the EPC. Once the European Council accepted the introduction of direct elections, the European Parliament could legitimately claim a greater role on the development of the EPC: being the only elective institution it could assure a democratic oversight over the EPC. By assuring a (limited) role to the European Parliament, the EPC remained an intergovernmental field of actions, although it now contemplated some supranational features.

The article addresses several issues that constitute the main areas of Polish-Romanian relations in the 21st century in the political dimension and in the broad sense of security. Relations between Poland and Romania have been characterized in the context of the membership of both countries in the European Union. Particular emphasis was placed on the period of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of EU, which lasted from January to the end of June 2019. The article indicates the most important common interests of both countries, the ways for their implementation, as well as potential opportunities for the development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. The article also takes into account the key challenges that Poland and Romania must face in connection with EU membership.

The article considers the modern tendencies and prospects of development of global integration in the global economic environment. It is shown that post-socialist transformation do not fit the classic model of transformational crossings, as have other stages, different specific hierarchy of procedural and structural factors are mixed, implement simultaneous transformations in various fields, save the importance of powerful items, stimulate the emergence of complex conflicts. Great attention is paid to the peculiarities of integration processes in Europe, in North America, the Asia-Pacific region. On the example of the European Union (EU), the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA), the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (APEC), which are the centers of global integration, which focused on large-scale economic, financial, scientific-technological and human resources, by their importance comparable to their political, military-strategic values, analyzed the stages of formation and development of the integration of the unions further directions of their strategic development.

The article endeavours to identify and characterise selected national associations of municipalities across Europe, as well as to provide typical models of municipalities being associated into large groups representing their interests in relations with central government. A study that addressed 26 European countries has helped identify four principal organisational models of associations of local structures. These are as follows: (1) the consolidated model (existing in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden), (2) the bipolar model (in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland), (3) the federative model (in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain), and (4) the fragmented model (to be found in France, United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, and Romania).

When, if ever, should people be exempted from a law because they cannot, given their particular beliefs and values, see the force of the reasons for that law? Such exemptions, often requested by religious and cultural minority groups, enhance the cooperative character of democratic government by eliminating instances in which some citizens must experience their subjection to state power as mere coercion. I defend three claims. First, the value of political cooperation is sometimes but not always pivotal in the moral evaluation of mere coercion. Second, political cooperation has both intrinsic and instrumental value, but the latter should not usually determine judgments about exemptions. Third, the relational costs of subjecting someone to mere coercion are neither binary nor proportional to the extent of that coercion. My model of these costs reveals the types of cases in which the absence of accessible reasons is most and least likely to warrant exemptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important step in strengthening the military-political alliance and legal basis of relations between the two countries became to be the Gentleman›s Agreement on mutual assistance between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Mongolian People›s Republic dated November 27, 1934. It provided that the two parties would assist each other in the case of external military attack on one of the two sides. Its provisions had been supplemented and elaborated in the Protocol on mutual assistance, signed in Ulaanbaatar on March 12, 1936, which contributed to the failure of the aggressive plans of the Japanese militarists against the MPR in 1939. In accordance with the Protocol on mutual assistance between the USSR and the MPR, Soviet military troops were brought into Mongolia and quartered along the South-Eastern boundary of the republic in September 1939. At the same time, the Soviet Union built a number of critical facilities necessary for the development of the Mongolian economy, and strengthening the defense power of the republic. The military-political alliance of the USSR and the MPR in the 1930s proved to be stable enough to defeat Japan at Khalkin-Gol in 1939. The Soviet-Mongolian troops under the leadership of the corps commander G.K. Zhukov who had developed a brilliant strategy for defeating the Japanese armed forces, managed to implement a successful offensive operation. So, the victory at Khalkin-Gol in 1939 showed the relevance and timeliness of creating the military-political alliance of the USSR and the MPR.

In recent decades, the world faces active integration processes at both regional and global levels. Trade and economic unions are created and agreements are signed. One of the latest agreements signed at the interregional level is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) - an agreement that covers foreign economic cooperation between Canada and the European Union (EU). CETA is an example of a new model of multilateral, comprehensive regulation of trade and economic relations. CETA went beyond the WTO, covering new areas of foreign economic cooperation. This article examines the history of international economic cooperation between Canada and the EU, analyzes the development of foreign economic relations between countries. In particular the article considers the background for CETA signing as the culmination of economic interaction between Canada and the EU countries. The author analyzes the agreement and identifies the priority areas of current and future potential cooperation. This study is one of the first in the field of studying interregional integration of a new type. The study of this issue can be useful for integration in other interregional agreements.