ISSN 2618-9844 (Online version)
ISSN 1810-6374 (Print version)
There is no greater joy for a Russian intellectual than to speculate about a decline of America. The problem is that the Russians still do not see any other worthy role for their country in the 21st century than the role of a superpower, as a state that realizes itself primarily through influence on global processes.
There is a great risk of getting mired in counterproductive discussions about the frontiers of the European model of historical development. References to the history of one region or another or one nation or another as “European” or “non-European” are unscrupulously used today inside the EU itself and along its periphery when it comes to discussing whether the region or nation deserves to be a member of a united Europe.
One might expect diffuse, grassroots movements that emerge from large-scale street protests to be more inclusive, deliberative, and democratic than traditional political parties. But the proliferation of personality-driven movements on both the right and the left in recent years calls that assumption into question.
The forces inclined to continue the “process” of ever-increasing, but never final, independence of Catalonia from Spain continue to play a crucial role in the politics of this region.
The Spanish prime minister’s decision to invoke Article 155 of the Constitution will not entail a full-fledged suspension of autonomy, but will probably include the convening of elections in Catalonia in early 2018, putting the Catalan police under control of Spain’s Home Affairs Ministry.
In the endless discussions about the Russian World, our analysts have obscured the issue by vague theorizing, but have failed to produce any recognized scientific concept or school that would explain the idea of the Russian World.
The referendum on the future of Catalonia is scheduled for October, 1. With the national government opposing the vote, the results of the upcoming event remains unclear.
“I am not afraid,” chanted the crowd that took to the streets in Barcelona after a van was driven into pedestrians on the Las Ramblas promenade, killing at least 14 people and injuring some 130 others. It was the most dignified and appropriate possible response to a terrorist attack, a firm demonstration of unity that transcended internal divisions.
Once again, a European city was hit by a terrorist attack. La Rambla of Barcelona, ??a tourist, commercial and entertainment center of the city, suffered a deadly assault.
The terrorist attacks in Spain have shown that ISIS is able to spread through the power of its ideology.
Over the past 24 hours two terrorist attacks happened in Spain.
Hungarian PM is preoccupied with battling Brussels as country’s citizens lose faith.
Despite eight years of horrific conflict, and over 500,000 thousand deaths, a stable peace in Syria remains elusive.
The presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran convened for their fourth summit on Syria in Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi on Feb. 14. Earlier leaders of the “guarantor countries” of the Astana process met in November 2017 in Sochi, in April 2018 in Ankara and in September 2018 in Tehran.
Anyone who has at least some idea about the theory of international relations should remember the oft-quoted formula put forward by the father of British geopolitics, Halford Mackinder: “Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.”
Relations between the US and Russia are at their worst since the end of the Cold War, China and the US have tense relations, India and China are trying to stabilize relations after a period of acrimony. The major powers appear today to be like the unhappy families in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: ‘Each unhappy family (major power in this case) is unhappy in its own way.’
Freedom of movement and freedom to choose a place of residence can be ranked among the category of freedoms which, as part of the Global Commons, have been restricted to varying degrees at the level of communities, states, and international associations.