Geopolitical Project Research Articles

Foreign Threats to Ukraine’s Independence and the Challenge Posed to Polish National Security

The purpose of the article is to examine the Russian threat to Ukraine’s state sovereignty and its impact on Poland’s national security; to underline that Russia intends to take revenge for its defeat in the Cold War, to regain control over the former Soviet Union republics, to defeat the USA and EU, and to establish control in the territory of the Eurasian continent. The research hypothesis is that the main purpose of Russia’s foreign policy is the reconstruction of a neo-imperial state, Ukraine’s reintegration into the post-Soviet space, and ensuring Russia’s domination in the region. The research task was completed using the research methods of a detailed study of sources and literature and a critical analysis of the information available to the author. Conclusions: Russia is trying to take revenge for its defeat in the Cold War, to regain control over the former Soviet Union republics, to defeat the West, and to establish control over the Eurasian continent. Russia considers Ukraine and Poland as dangerous agents of Atlanticism. That is why the Russian Eurasian geopolitical project aims for the Ukrainian and Polish states to be neutralized in a radical way. To this end, Russia has started a “hybrid war” against Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic countries will be the next targets of Russian aggression. It is profitable for Russian neo-imperialism to destroy trust and the strategic partnership between Poland and Ukraine, and to act in accordance with the divide-and-conquer algorithm. In such circumstances, Ukraine and Poland need to work out a new “Doctrine of restraining Russia’s aggression,” to pursue gradual and coordinated policy for the sake of the victory over Russian neo-imperialism and the dismantlement of the Russian imperial social system. The article describes the peculiarities of the modernization of the Russian imperial system at the present stage, analyzes the content of the Russian neo-imperialistic policy against Ukraine, Poland and the West, the reasons for the failure of Ukraine to neutralize Russian expansion, and also shows possible geopolitical consequences for the national security of Poland in the event of the successful implementation of Russia’s geopolitical strategy.

CONJUGATION OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION AND CASPIAN REGION

The Eurasian Economic Union as an international organization of regional economic integration is the middle space within which the global project of the Greater Eurasian Partnership is formed. The triad of Eurasian states of the EAEU (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) form the basis of this Union and the integration potential of its development. The specifics of the EAEU geographical space is in conjunction with the most important international organizations of Eurasia, within the geopolitical and economic boundaries of which the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the European Union (EU) and others are developing. A special place is occupied by the informal association of the Caspian Region states (CRS), where the geopolitical project " The Greater Caspian Region" is being formed. In the framework of this configuration possible approaches to the conjugation of the most important segments of the EEU and the Caspian region development are considered.

The Metaphysics of Decolonization

Decolonization is synonymous with liberation. It is invoked in multiple overlapping geopolitical projects that demand both the undoing of imperial-colonial structures and the amelioration of their effects. In his essay “Decolonizing Western Epistemology/ Building Decolonial Options,” Walter Mignolo describes decoloniality as a double-faced concept. Decolonization is a geopolitical project while decoloniality is an epistemological, political, and ethical process that enables decolonial futures (Mignolo 2011, 20). In this way, decoloniality is an analytical that critiques coloniality but also a generative utopian project that relies on decolonial epistemologies to materialize these futures. Like settler colonialism, coloniality is a structure that exceeds colonization and capitalism, expressing itself as modernity. It is the epistemic and hermeneutical processes of decoloniality that reveal ways of living and being—what Mignolo calls “living in harmony and reciprocity”—that ultimately build a nonimperial, noncapitalist world (Mignolo 2011, 25). In this article I put decolonial theory in conversation with Indigenous articulations of decolonization and religious life to illustrate what Indigenous decolonial futures may look like. I argue that reclamations of Indigenous metaphysical life regenerate Indigenous ontologies (intersubjective personhood) in ways that not only secure decolonial futures but also heal historical trauma, which can be understood as ontological dispossession.

Geopolitički razlozi razbijanja Titove Jugoslavije u kontekstu međunarodne hegemonije SAD

We will present the main geopolitical reasons for the creation of the Kingdom of the SCS-Yugoslavia and follow their effect until the moment those reasons led to the decision of the NEO-Atlanticists to liquidate Broz's SFR Yugoslavia as a state and geopolitical project of the Entente forces. The process of the disintegration of the SFRY proceeded quickly and decisively with the imposition of new geopolitical interests of NEO-Atlanticism and foreign policy priorities. At that time, a new hegemon in the monopolar political order emerged, following the downfall of bipolarism that had dominated the world stage for more than four decades. All the geopolitical transgressions of the USA, both in the zones of the post-Soviet order of power and in the territorial area of the post-Yugoslav geopolitical experiment, produced a mutilation of the statehood, demography, territory, identity, language, culture and economy of Serbs in the area.

ГЛОБАЛЬНЫЕ ТРАНСРЕГИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ИНИЦИАТИВЫ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ МИРОВОЙ ПОЛИТИКЕ: ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ВНЕШНЕПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ СТРАТЕГИЙ ВЕДУЩИХ ДЕРЖАВ В АЗИИ И ПОЗИЦИЯ АСЕАН

This article focuses on the most ambitious integration initiatives, negotiations on which in recent years have been the main topic of meetings of heads of state at the highest level and at meetings of intergovernmental organizations. First of all, there are competing trade agreements – RCEP and TPP, as well as global geopolitical projects – the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue created under the auspices of the United States and the Great Eurasian partnership promoted by the Russian Federation. The analysis shows that, in fact, China has taken over the initiative to form a new world order. Currently, Chinese strategic projects are the most ambitious, consistent and attractive in comparison with the proposals of other leading powers. We have to admit that the formats of cooperation on the basis of ASEAN may become a political anachronism in the near future, to which everyone will pay tribute, but key decisions will be made at other venues.

Desert Shield of the Republic? A Realist Case for Abandoning the Middle East

Political realists disagree on what America should “do” and “be” in the Middle East. All are skeptical toward extravagant geopolitical projects to transform the region. Yet they differ over whether hegemony in the Gulf and its wider environs are worth the substantial investment of blood and treasure. Hegemonic “primacy realism” finds the commitment effective and affordable, and that Washington should stay to stabilize the region to ensure a favorable concentration of power. There is an alternative “shield of the republic” realism, however, which views the pursuit of armed supremacy in the Middle East as harming political order at home, reducing security more than generating it, and costing too much for too little gain. It involves interests that are either manageable from a remove or largely generated by being there in the first place. In this article, we lay out the latter position, arguing that the unruly Gulf is increasingly peripheral to US national interests. The region is losing its salience grand strategically, entanglement and continuous war damage republican liberties, and the calculus of whether continued hegemony is “worth it” has shifted decisively toward the downside. The time for abandonment has come.

Review

Review

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ И ЭВОЛЮЦИОННОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ ИННОВАЦИОННО-ИНДУСТРИАЛЬНЫХ ПОЯСОВ ТОРГОВЫХ ПУТЕЙ В РОССИЙСКОЙ АРКТИКЕ В ЦЕЛЯХ ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЯ ИНКЛЮЗИВНОГО РОСТА

The research is aimed at studying and analyzing the formation and evolutionary development of innovative industrial belts of trade routes in the Russian Arctic in order to ensure inclusive growth. Goal. To determine the main directions of development of innovative and industrial belts of trade routes in the Russian Arctic as locomotives of the transition from the raw material to the high-tech structure of the national economy by using existing developments and competitive advantages in the field of spatial development of the regions of the Far North, the creation and functioning of polar communications. Tasks. To determine the main directions of the evolutionary development of innovative and industrial belts of trade routes in the Russian Arctic, to identify the problems and prospects of transport and logistics innovations in the Russian Arctic. Methodology. The research uses methods of world system analysis, evolutionary and institutional theory, the theory of production and technological balance and technical and economic patterns, expert and analytical assessments. Results. It is determined that the basis for the diversification of the national economy and increasing its technological level is the formation of innovative and industrial belts of trade routes of the Arctic region in all possible directions. The formation, functioning and development of trade routes in the XXI century has become one of the key directions of global anti-crisis policy, changes in the geo-economic configuration of the world economy, a source of income, a sphere of application of investment and credit resources, an infrastructure and integration basis for the implementation of major geopolitical projects. The problems and prospects of transport and logistics innovations in the Russian Arctic are revealed. Conclusions. The creation and effective functioning in the Arctic region of Russia of trade routes of the XXI century and their innovative and industrial belts should occur through the construction and efficient operation of global year-round land transport communications. First of all, we are talking about the development, implementation and scaling of open magnetic levitation transportation technologies, characterized by high-tech, maximum use of domestic developments, sparsely populated, a wide field for automation, robotization and digitalization, compliance with the requirements of the Sixth techno-economic order.

ФИНАНСОВАЯ ПОЛИТИКА США И КАНАДЫ НА ПОСТСОВЕТСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ В НАЧАЛЕ XXI В. (НА ПРИМЕРЕ СТРАН ЕВРАЗИЙСКОГО ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОГО СОЮЗА)

The paper deals with the development of financial and economic relations of the United States and Canada with post-Soviet states in the context of geopolitical processes in the Eurasian space. The author analyzes the nature of the North American investment capital impact on the internal development of the countries of Eurasia and on the dynamics of Eurasian integration. The paper highlights the most important events in the field of economic diplomacy of the United States and Canada, dynamics of volumes and sectoral focus of North American investments in the Eurasian region. A distinctive feature of the United States and Canada investment policy in the post-Soviet space is its politicization, its involvement in the global geopolitical projects of the West of the 21 st century. American business is most active in the countries of Eurasian Economic Union that already have developed the market institutions – Re- public of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Armenia, but it also acts in the Central Asia countries interested in attracting foreign capital. The work focuses on an analysis of the development of financial and economic rela- tions of the United States and Canada with post-Soviet states by the example of the Eurasian Economic Union members – Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic (except of Russian Federation, whose relationship with the United States and Canada should be the subject of a separate study).

WHY DID POST-SOVIET RUSSIA NOT FOLLOW THE "CHINESE PATH" OF REFORMS?

Analyzing the progress of reforms in the two countries, A.V. Kiva emphasizes that China managed to reform the country in an evolutionary way without the shocks that the Russian Federation went through. Deng Xiaoping's team carefully developed a reform model, including ways to get outside investment, technology, and expertise. At the same time, the emphasis was placed on internal development, and the authorities refused any geopolitical projects in order to save money. Already at the beginning of the reforms, the emphasis was placed on the development of the industrial and innovative sector in the economy and the creation of a strong export potential in order to obtain currency and increase investment in the economy. At the same time, Deng Xiaoping instructed his colleagues not to quarrel with anyone, not to react to unfriendly statements against China, no matter where they came from. As for Russia, the team of young reformers led by Yegor Gaidar did not develop their own model of reforms, but borrowed it from the United States and implemented it with the participation of American advisers. This model is made in the spirit of neoliberalism and a priori was disastrous for Russia. In the zero years, the model has changed, but the problem of transferring the country's raw material economy to the rails of industrial and innovative development has not been solved. Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, became embroiled in expensive geopolitical projects, quarreled with a number of influential countries, and failed to evade sanctions that hindered its development.

The Tenuous Co-Production of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Brazil and Latin America

ABSTRACT China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) evolved from promotion of Eurasian connectivity into a catchall for Chinese foreign policy and infrastructure investments worldwide. Although usually portrayed as a top-down geopolitical project of the Chinese central government, this article argues the BRI is actually shaped by converging and diverging interests of a wide variety of actors within and outside China. In order to conceptualize the relational, contingent, and unstable emergence of the BRI in Latin America, the article emphasizes the process of co-production as a theoretical framework. It first analyzes how the BRI incorporated Latin America through policy and discourse analysis, then examines the multi-scalar and multi-sited co-production of Chinese-funded port and railroad infrastructures through interviews and public documents in Brazil.

Blood and Borders: Geographies of Social Reproduction in Ciudad Juárez–El Paso

Each week, thousands of Mexican nationals living in northern Mexican border cities cross the border into the United States with nonimmigrant visas to “donate” blood plasma at commercial collection centers in exchange for a prepaid Visa gift card (valued at up to US$50). For these individuals, many of whom work on maquiladora assembly lines, a single donation can nearly double their weekly wages. If the ability to keep wages low remains a key means of leveraging the border’s competitiveness in the global economy, we argue that the devaluation of maquiladora labor in fact relies on the capacity of communities and households to increasingly absorb the hidden costs of social reproduction. Grounded in two years of ethnographic research in Ciudad Juárez–El Paso, this article argues that plasma donation is an increasingly vital strategy through which Mexican households meet the costs of social reproduction. Further, participation in the cross-border plasma economy is inseparable from institutions and frameworks that govern border crossing. By following the movement of Mexican blood plasma across the border, it becomes possible to understand how the border itself—as a material barrier and geopolitical project—shapes collective capacities for social reproduction.

THE SILK ROAD ECONOMIC BELT POLICY IN SUPPORTING CHINESE GEOPOLITIC PROJECTIONS IN THE REGION

<p>The Chinese government's policy in The Silk Road Economic Belt aims to facilitate the infrastructure of land route transportation. Railway infrastructure projects and installation of oil and gas pipelines require a large investment, and Chinese political power to influence every country to support and be involved in the Belt Road Initiative project. The direction of the Chinese government's policy is certainly intended to underpin China's geopolitical projections in the region. The research question is analyzed through theory of geopolitics, geostrategy and geoeconomics. The research methodology, based on descriptive analytic, is supported by data collection techniques and is equipped with data sources relevant to the phenomena discussed. In conclusion, China's geopolitical projections become the main goal for the Chinese government in the Silk Road Economic Belt policy. The assumption of the geopilitical theory of the heartland illustrates that the mastery of the land logistics route supports China's efforts to influence globally by building a logistics path that further connects China with the global world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Keyword</strong><strong>s</strong><strong>: </strong>China, Geopolitics, The Silk Road Economic Belt.</p>

Supply-side territoriality: reshaping a geopolitical project according to economic means

ABSTRACT The ‘Stars’ are series of suburban settlements adjacent to the border with the occupied West-Bank which illustrate the increasing privatisation of the Israeli settlement mechanism. Unlike earlier examples, which were dictated by pioneer ideology or individualistic attempts to achieve better living standards, during the 1990s the state adopted a supply-side territorial policy, which tried to ensure the continuation of its geopolitical project by securing the economic feasibility of the private sector. Analysing the development of the ‘Stars’, this paper sheds light on the privatisation and commodification of the Israeli settlement mechanism and with it the transformation of its spatial product.

Art Studies asa Geopolitical Project: Subject Field and Status of Theatre Studies

Using the example of theatre studies, the link between the subject field of art history and the social status of the discipline has been analyzed. The influence of historical ideas about the subject field of art history on the methodology of research, peculiarities of periodization of art and analysis of creative work of particular artists has been determined; the connection between the subject field and the social demand, as well as the main risks of art history related to the desobjectivation of art history at the expense of the related disciplines and its redefinition for the sake of geopolitical interests, dictatorship of taste, etc. are outlined.

Studying the History of Political and Lgal Doctrines in Russian Jurisprudence in the 20th — Early 21st Century: Conditions, Directions, Results

The paper is devoted to the role of the history of political and legal ideas in state construction, science and education. In this aspect, the problems related to amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation initiated by the President of the Russian Federation are considered. According to the author, these initiatives are a logical continuation of the planned changes in the political system, the mechanism (apparatus) of the state, the system of local self-government, contained in the most general form in the annual address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly. Such an early date for the address, the subsequent submission of the draft Federal Law to the State Duma without delay, and the work on implementing the provisions contained in it, leave no doubt that there is some strategy for Russia’s political development in the near future. In this regard, an assessment of the political situation in modern Russia is given and suggestions are made regarding the further evolution of the institutions of society and the state. The dialectical relationship between the national development model and its ideological justification is argued. The author emphasizes the special role of ideas in the history of Russian statehood. In addition, the paper reflects the assessment of the history of political and legal doctrines in the system of social sciences and legal education in the Soviet and post-Soviet period. There is evidence of the need to increase the role of theoretical and historical disciplines in the context of modern "hybrid" war and the strengthening of global competition for major geopolitical projects. The idea of reorienting Russian legal education from the study of legislation, which is changing so quickly that it does not actually take the form of knowledge, to the study of law in all its manifestations as a universal regulator of public relations.

Back to the Legal Middle Ages?

ABSTRACT Russia initiated the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union and the shaping the all-encompassing Greater Eurasian Partnership. For these geopolitical projects to successfully move forward, Russia must place its bets on using the toolkit of international law, while encouraging the development of regional and transregional integrational law and the systemwide modernization of its own domestic legal system. Accordingly, it is in Russia’s interests to preserve a vitally important quality of its legal system—openness to international and supranational law—as well as to strengthen and defend international law and refute all accusations that international law is ineffective or has even already collapsed. All theoretical constructs and statements about how international law is at the brink of a profound crisis contradict objective truth and common sense. They were only needed in order to untie various actors’ hands in international affairs. In actuality, adherence to international law is as necessary as ever. Without it, decent international cooperation cannot be restored, peaceful coexistence and solutions to global problems cannot be provided, and development for all cannot be achieved. It is vital to understand that it is in fact international law and supranational law that are the genuine law, while national law, on the contrary, often merely legitimizes lawlessness and barbarity. Prominent Russian legal scholars were writing about this at length and with authority in the early 20th century. Furthermore, today international law is only one part of the global regulatory system.

КРЫМ И ЧЕРНОМОРСКИЙ РЕГИОН В ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА ЭКСПЕРТОВ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО ИНСТИТУТА СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ УКРАИНЫ (НА МАТЕРИАЛАХ АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ДОКЛАДОВ К ПОСЛАНИЯМ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА ВЕРХОВНОЙ РАДЕ)

Basing on a constructivist approach to international relations and foreign policy, the author has defined the conceptual content of the script, in which the experts of the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies imagine Crimea and the Black Sea region. The study was carried out on the basis of the materials of the Institute's analytical reports to the messages of the President to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014-2018. It was found that the ideas about Crimea contained in them are extremely mythologized: in the political picture of the world of the Institute's experts, the peninsula is considered as a “Russian bridgehead”, a source of “military threat" and an "occupied territory". Ukrainian experts are convinced that the motives of Russia's foreign and defense policy in the Black Sea direction are allegedly due to its desire for "expansion", "imperial policy" and the desire to "restore the Soviet Union." They perceive the reunification of Crimea with Russia as an event that led to a cardinal transformation of the geopolitical space of the Black Sea region that contradicts Ukrainian national interests. At the same time, on rational grounds, the institute is actively searching for conceptual approaches to organizing a new regional security system and creating a long-term, broad and durable alliance of anti-Russian forces, which could act as a NATO parallel structure in the Black Sea region in the future. Moreover, Ukrainian experts do not have any own geopolitical project or idea on this. They are considering several options for regional coalitions at once, paying special attention to the Polish concept of "Intermarium", which consists in creating a block of Baltic-Black Sea states.

EXTERNAL FACTORS OF GEOPOLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONALIZATION

Russia is the largest country in the world, a civilization state, with its unique geopolitical code. To change this course, the identity of our country, to force it to wander in the wake of the geopolitical and foreign policy aspirations of other centers of power, a number of geopolitical projects based on “hard power”, “soft power” as well as “soft power” are being implemented in the Russian Federation and beyond its external borders. At the same time, due to the large-scale territory of Russia, the presence of its internal regions that are different in their characteristics, various projects are deployed by external forces in various directions. This article discusses the geopolitical projects of the main external forces projecting their influence on the South of Russia - the territories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of the Southern and North Caucasian federal districts. There are eight republics there: Adygea, Daghestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Crimea, North Ossetia-Alania and Chechnya, two territories - Krasnodar and Stavropol and three regions - Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov; in total 14 subjects of Russia.

“Hemos hecho Italia, ahora tenemos que hacer a los italianos”. El aparato educativo transnacional del régimen fascista italiano, 1922-1945

Otoño de 1922, las “escuadras de combate” del movimiento fascista marchan sobre Roma con Benito Mussolini y los miembros del Quadrumvirato a la vanguardia, demandando el final de la parálisis parlamentaria que había costado tan caro a Italia durante la Gran Guerra. Asaltado el poder, el nuevo régimen puso en marcha su objetivo más ambicioso: una revolución antropológica para forjar un nuevo hombre. Para este fin condujo la economía por los senderos del corporativismo, encuadró al Estado dentro del partido único y refundó las directrices de la política educativa. Esta última encomienda recayó, primero, en manos de Giovanni Gentile, arquitecto de la reforma educativa de 1923. Con el régimen en lo que Felice ha denominado como “la hora del consenso”, tocó el turno a Giuseppe Bottai, ideólogo del corporativismo, la labor de operar la consolidación del sistema educativo, promulgando la Carta della Scuola en 1939. Los actuales debates sobre el fascismo italiano como fenómeno global, exportador de subjetividades culturales y experiencias políticas que fueron recepcionadas con negociaciones de sentido e implementación, buscan situar la capacidad del Estado fascista para poner en acto su proyecto geopolítico. Existe actualmente en la historiografía consenso respecto a que no dispuso de los medios económicos ni la capacidad diplomática de penetración que su contraparte nazi. No obstante, en este artículo se ensaya un ejercicio de estudio de caso para demostrar la convicción mussoliniana para hacer a los italianos donde quiera que estos estuviesen. Dispuso para ello de una variedad de aparatos, desde las legaciones y embajadas, hasta la diplomacia informal o actores independientes cuyos intereses fueron seducidos por Roma, como es el caso de la Congregación Salesiana en la colonia de Chipilo.