Suchergebnisse

The foreign policy positions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following Joseph Kabila's election as president in 2006 are examined. It is rumored that the DRC has reengaged with the African Union to promote regional stability. Adapted from the source document.

The research focuses on the problem of military-political instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo experiencing continued armed conflict for a long time. Dozens of illegal armed groups both Congolese and foreign origin continue to destabilize situation in the eastern part of the country causing humanitarian disasters. Due to governmental weakness, economic backwardness, chronical lack of finance resources, interethnic conflicts, all-round and widely spread corruption of the authorities, the Congolese government at the moment is not able to overcome scores of problems including the problem of security. Assistanceprovided to the DRC by itspartnerssuch as, first of all, the former metropolitan country Belgium, as well as the USA, Great Britain, the Europe Union and China works only in favourof these country-donors. They are attracted by rich Congolese natural resources which the DRC remaining one of the poorest countries in the world cannot turn to advantage to the full extent because of its economic backwardness. In exchange for so-calleddevelopment programmes, expensive strategic raw material (such as coltan, wolfram, casseterit, cooper, gold, niobium, and other) is being extracted and exported from the country, in addition, often on the inequivalent basis. This is taking place for the reason that numerous mines and open-cast mines are being controlled by different illegal armed groups and not by the central government. Therefore, it turns out that in the context of a military-political crisis, for so-called partners it is more beneficial to pursue their own interests. Furthermore, western ideologists arouse "separatism-oriented" theories similar to "balkanization", in other words, a breakdown of this giant country into several independent states. The Congolese are tremulous to this issue, they try to counter such approachs and defend the territorial integrity of the DRC. However, it is not an easy task. The impediment is unsettled relations with neighbouring countries - Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi which for tens of years exploit illegally natural resources of the DRC and try to lay hold of frontier Congolese territories.

The article analyzes the latest migration trends in Southern Europe. Given the proximity to Africa and the Middle East, which are the main sources of migrant flows, the discussed topic is especially acute for the region and the countries chosen for the analysis, namely Portugal, Spain, Italy, San Marino and Malta. Using a comparative approach, the article focuses on the European general strategy for the reception of migrants versus its actual results. Despite the fact that the EU guidance and standards provide the foundation for immigrant integration policies across the region, the actual legal practice, its implementation and results in specific countries differ widely. To some extent, Portugal is ahead of other nations in the region, and its advantage is the result of a nationwide immigrant integration policy and a single state body empowered to lead its implementation. In Spain, on the other hand, the development of integration policies is performed regionally, meaning the absence of a nationwide integration program and, hence, a certain level of fragmentation and a lesser degree of policy efficiency. Italy adopted its first immigrant integration plan as recently as in 2017, and it has not brought significant results yet. Still, with the recent upscale in immigration flows, Italy's former soft immigration policies are becoming tougher. The country remains committed to multiculturalism and the quota mechanism for receiving migrants. Although tiny in size, Malta experiences high immigrant flow pressure, and tries to tackle it by providing de facto paid citizenship and residence permits for privileged immigrant strata.