Suchergebnisse

After Lithuanian accession to the European
Union and NATO, a cross-party political
consensus has existed regarding the
state's foreign policy objectives. Against this
background, the Žalgiris national resistance
movement, which was established by eminent
politicians, journalists, and public figures in
2009, posed a certain intellectual challenge.
This article concentrates on the development
of a new foreign policy philosophy - the
focal point of the interviews, round tables and
press conferences held by the Movement.

The article deals with conflict lines in the interaction of religious institutions and political actors in Europe. Church policy in the West is seen as a practical implementation of the neo-secular approach, which implies a reduction in the role of religious institutions and church elites while remaining religiosity and quasi-religiousness. It is shown that the contradictions of state-confessional relations in Western countries pose both a threat to the value autonomy of religious organizations and an increasing trend towards the instrumentalization of religion in foreign policy. It is shown that attempts of value pressure on traditional church institutions contribute to the formation of a hostile environment that contributes to the strengthening of intra-church contradictions. As a result, religious organizations find themselves in a situation of multiplying ideological divisions and artificially pushed internal competition. The risks of reducing the institutional stability of traditional churches based on the unity of the doctrine and striving for internal unity are increasing. In this regard, the article offers an analysis of possible internal and external reactions of church institutions to the increasing pressure. As possible scenarios, the strengthening of the processes of ideological and regional autonomy and the increase in increasingly open conflicts with secular authorities in a number of countries on topical issues of the political agenda are considered. Under any of the scenarios, it is predicted that the fault line between European countries will strengthen on issues with a strong religious connotation, which may lead to an increase in social tension and deepening of divisions among the electorate in the Western states.

The article is devoted to the analysis of historical retrospective and modern dynamics of region-building in the Baltic region. The cultural and historical foundation of regionalization processes in this area was laid over the centuries, although the framework was finally shaped in the 20th century: the Hanseatic League, the first attempts to create regional unions during the interwar period, the "northern cooperation" and the signing of the Helsinki Convention during the Cold War. In the post-bipolar period, the Baltic region continues to maintain its political and socio economic heterogeneity. Today, the key institution of multilateral cooperation uniting all countries of the region is the Council of the Baltic Sea States, whereas, from the EU perspective, the main self-sufficient instrument of regionalization is the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. At the same time, both formats rely in specific projects implementation on "horizontal actions" and network cooperation on the grass-roots level, which makes regional interaction practical to the greatest possible extent, largely depoliticized and stable in the long run.

Over the recent decades the problem of Faroese and Greenland's secessionism has become immensely pressing both for Denmark and the whole world, particularly in the face of growing geopolitical and military political instability. The authors intend to assess the probability of the dissolution of the Danish Commonwealth of the Realm and, as a consequence, to anticipate eventual international political scenarios. Firstly, the current legal statuses of the autonomous territories and their historical evolution were analyzed. Secondly, the phenomenon of metropolis' transfers as an instrument of neocolonial policy was studied, demonstrating the relationship between the level of dependence of a self-governing territory on economic aid from the core and the desire and/or willingness to pursue independence. Thirdly, the economic and politico-military factors determining the rise of separatism in the islands were investigated. Despite the steps taken by Copenhagen to contain secession, the situation is developing in an evolutionary way, which allows authors to make a prediction about the modification of the Danish Commonwealth of the Realm into a «free association».

The article addresses the process of European integration of 5 Western Balkan states: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. After the demise of the socialism system and the collapse of Yugoslavia, all countries in the region began to more or less associate their future with the participation in the European integration project. The philosophy of "Yugoslavism" was replaced by the idea of European integration. However, achieving this goal was not easy. The region is a complex (from the perspective of ethno-confessional and territorial conflicts) space where the political and economic interests of large non-regional players intersect. These factors predetermined the varying degree of success of the Western Balkan states on their way to the EU. The article analyzes the political and economic factors affecting this process. The subject of the analysis is the evolution of the socio-economic models of the Western Balkan states, their foreign economic ties, participation in the international movement of capital, labor, as well as economic ties with Russia.

The primary objective of the article is to evaluate the significance of status and allied reputation within Denmark's strategic culture. Amongst Danish international relations scholars, there is a well-established notion that one of the key motivations for the use of military force in Danish foreign policy was the aspiration to cultivate special relations with the United States and achieve the status of a privileged ally. This status would confirm guarantees for Denmark's national security, provide the country with an opportunity for distinctive influence in decision-making and agenda-setting in NATO, the EU, and transatlantic cooperation. A qualitative content analysis of the 2017-2018, 2019-2020 and 2022 Danish foreign policy strategies was carried out to determine the effect of such expert perceptions on the texts of the guiding foreign policy documents. The analysis highlighted and confirmed the 'super Atlanticism' tendencies in Denmark's contemporary strategic culture, revealing its close ties with the Danish perception of the US as the safeguard for the liberal world order and associated multilateral institutions. Denmark's value-driven militarised foreign political activism in the post-Cold War era is thus not only pragmatic but also ideological as it seeks to promote liberal values, democracy and human rights under American leadership. The article concludes that factoring in status and reputation in strategic culture studies may complement the explanations of security community formation, alliance strategies and the dynamics behind relations within different types of alliances.