Abstract This article examines Brazil’s diplomatic strategy in creating the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, emphasizing its cooperative frameworks with Paraguay and Argentina to foster regional integration. It analyzes how Brazil leveraged the Itaipu negotiations (1960-1979) to balance national interests and regional cooperation. By using process tracing, the study examines the negotiations surrounding the signing of the Cataratas Agreement (1966), the Itaipu Treaty (1973), and the Tripartite Itaipu-Corpus Agreement (1979). Three causal mechanisms help explain the outcomes achieved in each historical context: national interest, need for cooperation, and pressure from public opinion. The research highlights Brazil’s diplomatic maneuvers in the agreements, showing how these efforts reinforced Brazil’s role as a cooperative regional hegemon while advancing broader regional goals.
The paper analyses the impact of energy policies within the European Green Deal (EGD) on the vulnerable population in Romania, in the context of the elimination of energy price caps and the transition to a green economy. The study highlights the social imbalances generated by the application of European measures in a national context marked by energy poverty, low incomes and outdated infrastructure. Through a qualitative analysis and a case study, it is concluded that the success of the green transition in Romania depends on integrating the social dimension into energy policies to prevent the deepening of inequalities and ensure a just and inclusive transition.
This paper interrogates the role of the British colonial enterprise in the evolution and development of Kafanchan town. The research
employs content analysis of both primary and secondary sources in order to reconstruct the history of the town. Findings from the study trace the evolution and development of Kafanchan town to the construction of the railway line from Southern to Northern Nigeria that culminated in a station at an unsettled area of land: Kafanchan. The town evolved in response to the temporary sheds erected as quarters for construction workers and staff of the Nigerian Railways who belonged to diverse ethnic groups. Due to the strategic nature of this railway station, the population grew. This triggered the emergence of a settlement that was cosmopolitan right from its foundation.
Oskar Szczygieł, Adrianna Wojciechowska, Vitaliy Krupin
et al.
This study addresses methodical and empirical dimensions of energy poverty based on the case study of the Masovian Voivodeship (also referred to as Mazovia) of Poland, focusing on socioeconomic, technical, and infrastructural factors affecting the thermal comfort of households, while taking into account the local contexts. Using both objective and subjective indicators, this study analyses selected conditions and perceptions of household groups defined as “energy poor”. The representative study group surveyed during the research process includes 2000 residents of the Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The study was conducted utilising the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) and computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) methods. Analysis results show significant regional differences: the prevalence of energy poverty varies significantly depending on energy costs, housing conditions, and heating sources. Results indicate that older buildings and single-family houses, especially those still using coal or wood heating, are characterised by the greatest vulnerability to energy poverty, often related to insufficient insulation and outdated heating infrastructure. Conclusions highlight the urgent need to implement targeted policy interventions, advocating for thermal efficiency programmes and support for low-income households to alleviate the wider socioeconomic and health consequences of energy poverty in the region.
The article considers migration processes in the post-Soviet space, relative to the Russian Federation, as the main center of migration attraction. Empirical data are introduced into scientific circulation, characterizing some migration indicators in 2022 on the basis of which the features of external labor migration to Russia are revealed. The author analyzes quantitative and qualitative indicators of external migration on the basis of not only statistical data, but also regulatory legal acts, which makes it possible to determine the ratio of migration needs and migration challenges faced by Russian society, which generally negatively perceives the migration model implemented in the state. The conclusion proposes measures that allow, according to the author, to increase the effectiveness of the implemented state migration policy and reduce the conflict potential of external migration.
El presente análisis pretende contribuir al debate sobre la implantación de las corporaciones extractivas chinas en América Latina. Mientras por parte del régimen de Beijing y socios en la región publicitan que estas inversiones se enmarcan en una supuesta cooperación win-win en el contexto de la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta (Belt and Road Initiative, BRI), el patrón de los negativos efectos de estas actividades extractivas sobre los derechos humanos y el medio ambiente apuntan a una reedición de unas prácticas de abusos a las comunidades afectadas, que se ha llegado a calificar como un nuevo colonialismo con características chinas. Al mismo tiempo, estos casos no hacen sino constatar las lagunas del derecho internacional y los límites de las distintas iniciativas de soft-law (desde los Principios Rectores a los Planes de Acción Nacional) para poder denunciar los abusos de las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y en consecuencia, exigir responsabilidades.
The paper analyses the articles of the famous Tatar historian G. Gubaydullin published in his student years in the magazine “Maktap” (1913). The articles are devoted to the problems of teaching logic and history in Tatar madrasas at the beginning of the twentieth century. The introduction of new secular subjects into the learning process was especially relevant for the national school. Moreover, new teaching methods were developed in the absence of school textbooks in the Tatar language. Gubaydullin, as a future professional historian, understood full well the importance of humanitarian subjects, especially history and logic, in the formation of national identity of young people. In the article “Din madrasalarenda tarikh ukytu” (“Teaching history in religious madrassas”) he discusses the methodological recommendations for teachers and shakirds. The recommendations were important because Tatar educators had no experience in teaching history. Logic was studied in old-fashioned madrasas, but after the 1905 revolution the training programs were changed and there was a demand for a new textbook which would meet the requirements of the era. The historian writes about this issue in the article “Din madrasalarenda mantyk” (“Logic in religious madrassas”). At the beginning of the new century, the Tatar public had heated discussions about the concept of “nation”. G. Gubaydullin expressed his opinion about the preservation of the unity of the Turkic peoples in the article “Iske tel ham millat” (“Old language and nation”). He considered it necessary to introduce a new school subject – the Chagatay language for a better understanding of the ancient Turkic literature. The analysis of these articles gives an idea of the scholar’s views on national pedagogy.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Folklore
Maxim Korneyev, Ivan Berezhniuk, Volodymyr Dzhyndzhoian
et al.
The war in Ukraine dealt a crushing blow to the country’s economy. The relevance of the topic is due to the marketing ability to be an effective tool for restoring and developing business in Ukraine. The paper aims to define the state and prospects for developing business and its marketing component during the war in Ukraine. The research analysis demonstrates that the share of business representatives who completely or partially ceased their activities during the first three months of the war decreased from 75.3% in March to 49.0% in May (compared to February 24, 2022), which is indicative of the gradual resumption of business in Ukraine. At the same time, it was found that in May 2022, the food retail, non-food retail, household appliances, and electronics sectors partially resumed their work. The best renewal rates are observed in the jewelry sector, and the worst – in the entertainment sector. A study of marketing activities in Ukraine shows that the most positive changes regarding gradual renewal are observed in digital marketing. The paper highlights the key consequences of hostilities for Ukrainian business and its marketing activities: supply chain disruption, reduced purchasing power, changes in consumer demand, stockpiling, and a state of uncertainty among business representatives. In addition, the study offers general approaches to adapting marketing and SMM during the war to preserve, restore, and further develop business in Ukraine.
The right to development is a fundamental right, the precondition of liberty, progress, justice and creativity. This right has raised many expectations and controversies over the years. Developing countries claim that the international economic and political order constitutes an obstacle to the enjoyment of the right to development for their citizens. They therefore see a need for action in the international dimension of the right to development. In their view, they are able to provide the necessary basis for the enjoyment of the right to development only if the international order becomes more conducive to the economic development of developing countries. This paper aims to examine the concept of the right to development as a ‘human right’ focusing mainly on the position of developing countries as to whether they have an obligation to work towards the realization and implementation of this right. The paper concludes that the right to development is now recognized as a ‘human right’ like other internationally accepted human rights. Thus, being a right, it entails obligations of some agents in the society, who have the power to deliver the right or adopt policies that have a high likelihood of delivering the right.
With the takeover of Crimea by masked Russian soldiers/fighters without national insignia in February/March 2014, with the Kremlin at first denying its involvement, war became ‘hybrid’ in our minds. The follow-on conflict in Eastern Ukraine, with separatism supported by neighbouring countries and the armed establishment and military securing of pseudo-state people’s republics, including recourse to pro-Russian fighters ‘on holiday’, has reinforced the impression of a hybrid form of warfare, raising the question: what is hybrid warfare? This article argues that the specific nature of hybrid warfare is essentially a strategic matter characterised by three key tendencies and their orchestration within a hybrid ‘grand strategy’: 1. Focusing the decision of the war/conflict, as such, primarily on a broad spectrum of non-military centres of gravity in a flexible and dynamic manner. 2. Operating in the shadow of various interfaces against specific vulnerabilities of the opponent, thus challenging traditional lines of order and responsibilities, creating ambiguity and paralysing the decision-making process of the opponent. 3. Creative combination and parallel use of different civilian and military means and methods, categories and forms of warfare and fighting, thus creating ‘new’ mixed, hybrid forms.1 At the same time, there is a growing sense that hybrid forms of warfare will shape the face of war in the 21st century.2 They seem to offer unpretentious political success by smart recourse to limited, deniable and supposedly manageable use of force. The assumption that the risk of military escalation and political damage could be kept within limits may at the same time increase the likelihood of the offensive use of hybrid forms of warfare. For this reason, it is high time to improve our common and comprehensive understanding of hybrid forms of warfare as a precondition for common and comprehensive action in defence and response.
Niels Nijsingh, Christian Munthe, D. G. Joakim Larsson
Abstract Background Emissions of high concentrations of antibiotics from manufacturing sites select for resistant bacteria and may contribute to the emergence of new forms of resistance in pathogens. Many scientists, industry, policy makers and other stakeholders recognize such pollution as an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to global public health. An attempt to assess and reduce such discharges, however, quickly meets with complex realities that need to be understood to identify effective ways to move forward. This paper charts relevant key actor-types, their main stakes and interests, incentives that can motivate them to act to improve the situation, as well as disincentives that may undermine such motivation. Methods The actor types and their respective interests have been identified using research literature, publicly available documents, websites, and the knowledge of the authors. Results Thirty-three different actor-types were identified, representing e.g. commercial actors, public agencies, states and international institutions. These are in complex ways connected by interests that sometimes may conflict and sometimes pull in the same direction. Some actor types can act to create incentives and disincentives for others in this area. Conclusions The analysis demonstrates and clarifies the challenges in addressing industrial emissions of antibiotics, notably the complexity of the relations between different types of actors, their international dependency and the need for transparency. The analysis however also suggests possible ways of initiating incentive-chains to eventually improve the prospects of motivating industry to reduce emissions. High-resource consumer states, especially in multinational cooperation, hold a key position to initiate such chains.
Industrial medicine. Industrial hygiene, Public aspects of medicine
This article argues that Justin Rosenberg’s proposal to reground IR in an ontology of societal multiplicity fails to account for the practices by which the field has erased multiplicity from its register and has sustained its identity through suppression of difference. We posit that the prison of colonial modernity, more than that of Political Science, is at the root of IR’s lack of a distinctive purpose, and that Rosenberg’s gesture toward uneven and combined development (UCD) as a sorely needed ‘big idea’ is insufficient for the jail break.
This article focus on political science as a matter of study in the programs of the National Academy for Political and Strategic Studies, in order to explain the reason of including this discipline, particularly in its relation with security and defense. It is focused on the object of study of political science, thus delivering precisions about the concept of politics among others related. It also emphasizes some aspects that have been important in this discipline, including some modern epistemological debates, and also open the scope of possibilities that today can be offered as matters of study in a world yielded to the dynamics of the globalization.
This essay draws on insights from feminist scholarship to complicate the image presented of International Relations theory in Justin Rosenberg’s article ‘International Relations in the Prison of Political Science’. I suggest that Rosenberg’s careful and persuasive analysis proceeds from a number of assumptions about where ‘IR theory’ resides intellectually, and in whose bodies ‘IR theory expertise’ accrues.
The article presents the results of a systematic consideration of the complex issues of sustainable development of the national maritime transport subsystems in the global maritime transport industry. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the real conditions of operation. There are feasible measures which should be taken to normalize the development of the national merchant fleet in order to achieve relative stability and to minimize the risk of losing the status of maritime power. Aspects of international administration in marine transport industry are highlighted in this article. The article deals with the scientific and methodological approaches to the choice of governance of economic and investment activity in the system of market relations.
The article provides a review of the ways in which interdisciplinary research in modern economic thought gives a more realistic understanding of human behavior and economic decision making. On the one hand, economic imperialism drove wider application of economics methods across social sciences and brought about new interdisciplinary fields, such as law and economics, economic sociology, public choice theory, etc. On the other hand, the origin of behavioral economics, experimental economics, and neuroeconomics bridging psychology, neurobiology, and economics influences the change in the methodology used by the economics itself and fuels transformation of the model of rational economic behavior 'homo economicus', one of the central assumptions of the neoclassical economics. George Akerlof and Robert Shiller's animal spirits, prospect theory of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, research by Amartya Sen, Daniel McFadden, Vernon Smith, and other economists focusing on decision making either significantly limit, or supplement the homo economicus concept providing a deeper insight into the nature of human rationality. Behavioral economics has already become so strong as a separate discipline that it can be classified into two streams - Classical and Modern, and its main principles should be incorporated into a basic course of traditional economics. The achievements of behavioral economics yield higher quality of economic research and forecasting. Interdisciplinary approach to the human behavior studies and transformation of homo economicus offer new tools for the development policy making.
This introduction to this Special Issue of International Relations dedicated to Karl Deutsch makes the case that his scholarship was transformative in more ways than is typically recognized in the discipline. Besides being a theoretical and methodological innovator, Deutsch also envisaged that research must have transformative qualities for the future of human relations. The latter in particular deserves attention of International Relations (IR) students because it opens up possibilities for novel empirical and theoretical research of international politics. Deutsch clearly believed that social scientific research must be normatively grounded and serve normative purposes.
This in-depth conversation with Professor Andrew Linklater engages with his academic biography, his intellectual contribution to the field of International Relations (IR) and his reflections on the current state of, and challenges facing, the discipline of (IR). It thereby traces his biography from his undergraduate days in Aberdeen, via his first lectureships in Australia, back to the United Kingdom and eventually to Aberystwyth University; it engages with his main oeuvres from the 1982 book Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations to his most recent work on The Problem of Harm in World Politics, and covers the development of IR as a global discipline from the 1970s until today.