Geopolitical Impact Research Articles

Gas, Oil and the linkages between domestic and foreign policies: The case of Ukraine

mechanisms which coordinated economic activities between republics, this collapse by itself did not eliminate the existing web of economic dependencies on the previous 'centre,' i.e. Moscow. Nowhere has the issue of economic dependence on Russia been so clear as in the area of gas, oil and other energy resources. Thus energy sources and their transport may to a large extent hold the key to the longer-term ability of the new, post-Soviet states to achieve economic independence. This is true to such a point that one author, Smolansky, has argued that 'the proclamation of independence, the adoption of state symbols and a national anthem, the establishment of armed forces (...) and even the presence on Ukrainian territory of nuclear missiles-all important elements of independent statehood-amount to little if another power, Russia, controls access to fuel without which Ukraine cannot survive economically'.l Although the geopolitical impact of energy sources is significant throughout the entire territory of the former USSR, their importance is especially clear in the Caspian Sea area and the area on Russia's western borders, centring on Ukraine. In this article I will concentrate on this second area. What makes a case study of Ukraine's energy politics especially interesting is the fact that, as described by a writer for the Eastern Economist, the mechanisms for the supply and distribution of Russian energy to Ukraine are 'at the centre of political struggles at both the international and domestic levels'.2 Yet while the effects of Ukraine's structural energy dependency on Russia have been studied elsewhere,3 little attention has been paid to the domestic determinants of this situation, and the ripple effects of these domestic factors beyond Ukraine's borders.

Geopolitical Impact of the Concept of Corporate Networks

It is apparent that firms require efficient networks, including telecommunications networks. This affects their strategies and their capital expenditure which, in the case of large-sized firms, is often inter national. It is in the interest of states that efficient networks should exist as they are useful for firms that carry out takeovers (that is, firms with an attacking attitude), as well as those that have recourse to subcon tracting and franchising (that is, firms with a defensive attitude). The article deals with the impact of such networks on companies and discusses how changes take place in a geopolitical context.

Geopolitics and Development: A Nepalese Perspective

of a country's life: society, culture, politics, economics, religion. Although improvements in incomes and standards of living are necessary for development, these conditions should also bring about desirable changes in attitudes, values, beliefs, and culture as well as in institutions and systems. Unfortunately, many less-developed and developing countries such as Nepal are striving for economic development without giving due recognition to bringing out desirable changes in their social and political institutions and systems. One reason for this blindness is that theories of development in the 1950s and 1960s treated it purely in terms of a mechanistic linear relationship between investment, savings, and growth. Even the development theories of the 1970s and 1980s, which focused on growth and distribution, failed to address the problems of socio-political and institutional changes. If economists have analyzed development in a purely economic sense, political scientists and sociologists have discussed it solely with the language of their disciplines. None, however, have examined the impact of geopolitics on development. Nepal is a country sandwiched between two of Asia's competing powers, China and India. This geopolitical position has been described metaphorically as a root between two stones. Nepal's situation provides an interesting example of how geopolitics has imposed an extremely serious obstacle for harmonizing external relations with aspirations for peace, security, and development. It also indicates how geopolitical factors have been, at certain times, a positive element in evolving policies and strategies for countering perceived threats from neighboring countries. However, this latter aspect of Nepal's

Promotion in the Heroin Market and Public Policy Issues

The illicit drug industry is perhaps one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Despite its geopolitical, economic, and social impact, little is known about the industry's marketing practices. This article examines the promotion mix of the heroin industry and discusses public policy issues which emerge from this examination.

States and urban revolutions

The structural perspective applied here highlights the features that led to the successful, anti-modern, and backward-looking religious revolution in Iran and the failure of a democratic socialist, worker-oriented movement in Poland. I argue that one can best understand the outcome of modern revolutions by focusing on the state and its relations to the society. By contrasting two countries and two revolutions, I have tried to show that variables such as the structure of the state, the patterns of state-church conflicts, the shifting church-class alliances, and the impact of geopolitics on these domestic factors are essential in explaining why one revolution succeeded while the other failed. The comparative argument can be summarized in the following way. In terms of state structure, the one-man rule in Iran strengthened the absolutist power of the Shah, but weakened the organizational capacity of the various state agencies to deal with political crises. The state bureaucracy and military disintegrated when the leadership lost its authority. In Poland, the existence of powerful and potentially autonomous organizations within the state apparatus made the counterrevolution possible. The party bureaucracy functioned despite chaos at the top and bottom of the hierarchy; and the Polish generals used the united military to seize power by declaring martial laws. The dialectical relation between state and society is equally important to understanding the different revolutionary outcomes. The Iranian state intensified its attacks on the Shiite clergy in the 1970s, emasculating the power of this non-state elite. When popular discontent broke out, the Shiite clerics became the revolutionary vanguard, mobilizing the support of all urban classes and leading the final assault on the monarchy. On the other hand, after a period of repression, the Polish regime made peace with the Roman Catholic church in order to appease the overwhelming Catholic population and to gain legitimacy. Because of the moderation of the state's religious policy, the church played a mediating rather than revolutionary role in the state-class conflict of 1980–81. While the clergy in Iran allied with the urban classes, the Polish church first supported the creation of Solidarity and then broke this alliance; the neutrality of the church thus reduced drastically the capacity of Solidarity to negotiate with the party-state. In these two cases, the participation of the clergy or the withdrawal of its support to urban classes means class capacity or incapacity to fight the regime. In addition, the international contexts had a great impact on the Iranian and Polish conflicts. The Polish state was constrained by its satellite position within the Soviet military empire, and the Polish Catholic church by the Vatican bureaucracy. The Soviet threat of invasion forced the party to choose military repression and convinced the religious elite to adopt a cautious attitude. In contrast, the Iranian state was relatively independent from the United States. The U.S. administration had no policy of military intervention in the Gulf region, and because it was devoid of any constraint, Iran's clergy followed the revolutionary call by a charismatic leader.