Abstract ▼

During 2015, Europe was faced with the migration crisis, which was the consequence of the peak of the perennial migration movements from Africa and Asia, primarily towards the EU member states. Along with the unprecedented number of migrants, the distinctive feature of migration movements was a redirection of the migration route towards the so-called Balkan migration route. Such a dynamic and the direction of movements presented the challenge for the EU and transit countries of Southeastern and Central Europe, which required sustainable solutions in the scope of crisis management. The paper analyzes factors that affected the high increase in the movement of migrants towards the EU member states, primarily into Germany, as well as those that contributed to the opening of the Balkan route, which extended from Greece through Austria towards the other Western European states. Additionally, the paper discusses different actions taken by states affected by the crisis, which were in the span from the humanitarian approach to the securitization. The authors note that domestic and foreign policy goals usually determined different approaches, while sustainability of the approach directly correlated with the ability of the receiving countries to accept migrants. The analysis shows that the only sustainable solution is the one that is based on the factors affecting the migration movements. This applies equally to the migration policies of the emissive, the receiving as well as transit countries

Abstract ▼

In a fast-changing world, the process of globalisation imposes a long-term task: how to maintain or re-shape the existing world (dis)order. The aim of this paper is to point to the emergence of climate refugees in the context of refugee problems in general. The common denominator of all refugees is a risk of disrupting relationships and gradually undermining co-operation among states. This paper, however, emphasises the positive role of refugees in strengthening and revalorising of multiculturalism in the existing societies and states, as well as their contribution to the continuous process of globalisation. The second aim of the paper is to indicate the absence of the full authority of international organisations as decision-making centres. The important question and an acute problem as well, refer to the way in which societies and states, including Serbia, could be preserved as a historical outcome of the emergence of climate refugees who threaten, more than others, to destabilise their social structure.

Abstract ▼

The author draws on the insights of the theoretical framework of historical institutionalism, to assert that the German government is to a greater extent limited by its membership in the Eurozone, than it is usually pointed out in the analysis of its dominance. Above mentioned, is particularly evident when taking into consideration the relations of the economically most powerful member of the European Union and increasingly powerful European Central Bank. During the formative phase of the Economic and Monetary Union, Germany has facilitated the inclusion of assumptions relating to the widest range of independence of the European Central Bank into the Founding Treaty. By doing so, it has overlooked the possibility, that at the crucial moment of economic crisis, the European Central Bank will use its autonomy to pursue what is in the best interest of the Eurozone, contrary to the interests of the strongest economy of the block. The purpose of the analysis of the selected anti-crisis measures is to draw attention towards the ability of the institutional system that supports the common currency to adapt to external shocks, including the ways in which supranational technocratic institutions are broadening their competences. The end result, of the crisis driven multilayer process of institutional adjustment, is a gradual, but insufficiently transparent, centralization of economic governance in the Eurozone.

Abstract ▼

The paper analyses finlandization as one of the models of neutrality of the small states in great powers conflicts. From the characteristics of Finlandʼs neutrality during the Cold War, the author derives elements for the definition of finlandization, and determines necessary conditions for its feasibility. Also, the differences between finlandization and other models of neutrality of the small states (“buffer” state and “grey zone”) are determined, while the model itself is connected to several dichotomies of neutrality (neutrality in war and peace, military and political, permanent and ad hoc, guaranteed and unilateral, de jure and de facto, active and passive). Besides Finland, several auxiliary cases are tested: Yugoslavia on the eve of the Second World War, Denmark and Sweden during the war, contemporary Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Serbia. The conclusion is that the successful case of Finlandʼs neutrality during the Cold War offers good lessons for the foreign policy of any small states which end up in a sphere of influence of the great power with which it has a conflict of national interests.

Abstract ▼

In the theory and practice of international law has long been present a debate on the ability of international organizations to influence the decisions in the process of creating international law. It is undisputed that the decisions of international organizations have an increasingly important position, but the debates about the law constituting role of these organizations in the contemporary international law are still alive. There is no consent, and certainly, the widest debates are provoked by the decisions of the international organization of a universal character – the United Nations. A key task of our research will be to analyze the decision-making practice within the United Nations and to determine, by the comparison of the different arguments of international law schools of thought, the impact that this organization has on the creation of international law. Also, we will try to investigate whether the decisions taken in the framework of international organizations carry within them a little more than “moral and political force”, but also to check the achievements of the so-called soft law (soft law).

Abstract ▼

The ideas of the democratic (separate) peace originally exposed during the Enlightenment period have been further explained during the 1980s, by entitling this issue within the academic discourse and setting up its theoretical foundations. The fruitfulness of quantitative empirical researches of the democratic peace theory had as its consequence many papers which were dedicated to these topics. Most of them have been taking into consideration very wide time framework of investigation which implied the usage of an uneven methodological data processing from different periods and have led to bad validity of the final results. This has become very significant when the authors were presenting diametrically different results using the completely same methodology. The interpretation of both results and basic theoretical foundations on which the theory is based on, also represent significant problem without achieved consensus within the academic community. This paper aims at empirically research the explanatory potential of the democratic peace theory in contemporary system of the international relations. By combining the data on conflict intensity taken from the Heidelberg Peace Research Institute (HIIK), and the data on the democratic level of states by Polity4 datasets, the authors tried to investigate the main hypothesis of the theory – whether the democratic states are less war prone in their interdependent relations? The research was conducted on 1985 registered conflicts within the 5 years term from 2010 to 2014. According to the extensive interpretations of the results, the starting hypothesis has been confirmed, but when it comes to the restrictive interpretation, the claims of the theory, that democracies are less war prone, have been rebutted.