Volume 3, Issue 2
Understanding Suicide Terrorism: Problem-Solving Approach to Suicide Terrorism
Tanya Narozhna and W. Andy Knight
Over the past few years, the problem of suicide terrorism has garnered significant scholarly interest. Recent literature on suicide terrorism eschews earlier claims about the profound irrationality or psychopathology of attackers and focuses instead on the strategic dimension of this phenomenon, introducing rational choice cost-benefit analysis of the strategic calculations on the part of sponsoring organisations.
Talking about Unlawful Combatants? A Short and Concise Assessment of a Long and Multifaceted Debate
Veronika Bilkova
In the memorandum of February 7, 2002, (former) US president George W. Bush qualified the members of the Taliban movement arrested in Afghanistan and detained at the US military base of Guantánamo Bay as "unlawful combatants". In the following months, the scope of this term was broadened to include, at first, detained members of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, and, later, all the "other international terrorists around the world, and those who support such terrorists."
Medvedev's Initiative: A Trap for Europe?
Yury Fedorov
The informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers (Corfu, June 27-28, 2009) launched the so-called ‘Corfu Process'. Greek Foreign Minister, Theodora Bakoyannis, summarizing the meeting's discussions noted that the process should be an open, sustained, wide-ranging and inclusive dialogue on security [with a view] to solve the security challenges [Europe is facing], guided by the spirit of comprehensive, cooperative and indivisible security.
Rethinking EU-Russian Relations: ‘Modern' Cooperation or ‘Post-Modern' Strategic Partnership?
Scott Nicholas Romaniuk
The geopolitics of both the European Union (EU) and the Russian Federation (Russia), following the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), has largely been defined by a search to carve out their own niches within a new geopolitical context. Several ideological, psychological, cultural, and historical factors contributed to closer cooperation between Russia and its more prosperous EU neighbours.
Governing Internal Security in the European Union
Artur Gruszczak
The Maastricht treaty on the European Union (EU) erected a three-pillar edifice of European integration whose third pillar comprised various forms of cooperation in justice and home affairs. Many practices had existed much before 1992 and their inclusion into the new organization was a kind of cosmetic surgery.
Missing Development Opportunities on the EU's Southern Border
Jose Maria Lopez-Bueno
According to Kennan's long telegram, permanent peaceful coexistence between the democratic ‘West' and the communist ‘East,' (led by the Soviet Union), was next to impossible (Kennan, 1946). However, similar to Soviet ‘official statements,' Kennan's assumptions were thinly veiled propaganda, meant for domestic consumption.
Continuity and Change in the US Foreign and Security Policy with the Accession of President Obama
Nik Hynek
The question of continuity and change in the US Foreign/Security Policy (henceforth USFSP) after the accession of President Obama can be constructively studied from two complementary perspectives: the thematic perspective and the procedural perspective. This method determines the structure of this analysis. In the beginning, key issues of the USFSP in the context of the change of the American administration are examined.
State Failure and Security in a Post-Westphalia Era
Natalia Piskunova
A current trend in International Relations (IR) suggests that challenges to the international system are of a post-Westphalia character. These new challenges are caused by the gradual decline of the state as the only authoritative player on the international relations and security chessboard.
Multilateral Development Bank Accountability Mechanisms: Developments and Challenges
Richard E. Bissell and Suresh Nanwani
Prior to 1993, the multilateral development banks (MDBs) could be held to account for their actions only by their shareholders - governments in all cases that provided working capital for the banks for their lending and development purposes. It was thus a fundamental change in the system of international governance for citizens adversely affected by poorly-designed and/or implemented projects supported by these banks to be able to file claims through a formal accountability mechanism or forum to redress their grievances.
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