International Political Institutions Research Articles

A game of cat and mouse: Human rights protection and the problem of corporate law and power

AbstractHuman rights violations by corporations are widespread and have a broad spectrum: damage to people’s health through pollution, environmental accidents and health and safety failures, forced labour or child labour, underpaid workers, displaced communities, contaminated water sources, use of excessive force, and discrimination, for example by race, gender or sexuality. Corporate violence, resulting from a long history of corporate power and colonialism continues today as corporations have grown into powerful global conglomerates. Through complex and opaque multinational groups and supply chains, use of corporate law concepts such as the corporate veil, as well as other actions such as tax avoidance and lobbying of national and international political institutions, corporate actors remain free to pursue their goals. Despite efforts to combat corporate harm through the development of a business and human rights movement success has been limited and significant gaps remain in the global governance required to ensure protection. This article argues that, similar to a cat and mouse game, corporations find new ways to defend themselves against those seeking to dismantle their power or to prevent human rights infringements. The problem is rooted in structural and systemic inequalities within the international legal framework and in company laws that maintain corporate structures that obstruct the human rights movement’s progress. The current drive towards a more sustainable business agenda requires a just transition, including transformation of global and corporate structures to tackle human rights violations and the inequalities of power and wealth that facilitate such violations.

Food security in times of war: problems and ways of ensuring it in Ukraine

The peculiarities of the manifestation of the food crisis in Ukraine in times of war are investigated and the foreign experience and the experience of international organizations and political institutions in overcoming it are analyzed. The analysis is based on the concept of food security developed by the UN, which defines it as sustainable physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. It also uses the comprehensive approach with four pillars of food security: food availability, access, utilization, and stability. In the context of the study of food security in Ukraine, two areas for analysis are identified: a decrease in the availability of food for the population and a violation of nutritional stability; a decrease in the economic access of the population to food and essential goods. The article focuses on the issue of economic access to food for vulnerable groups of the population (including internally displaced persons and people living near the demarcation line, and in the occupied and liberated territories), compares the incomes of households of internally displaced persons in Ukraine at different moments since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia in February 2022, and presents the results of the assessment of the population's food needs in Ukraine. The prevalence of food insecurity and the ongoing fight against it at the international level have made it possible to develop clear mechanisms to overcome it. Based on numerous studies and taking into account the experience of countries where the food crisis was caused by natural disasters or the impact of climate factors and states whose territories became the arena of military conflicts, in the context of finding ways to overcome the food crisis, the author examines the comprehensive approach of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to achieving food security in crisis conditions, which combines two areas: Sustainable development of rural areas and stimulation of agriculture; development and implementation of targeted programs to provide direct access to food for vulnerable groups. The areas of the comprehensive approach of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are defined as complementary and aimed at reinforcing each other's positive results. Moreover, the article analyzes the European Union's approach to rural development in the Common Agricultural Policy, which provides for the definition of two equally important directions: support and stimulation of the agricultural sector; strengthening the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of rural areas in the context of overcoming the risks inherent in this type of territory.

THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION IN THE POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES

The purpose of the article is to study the essence of the right of peoples to self-determination on the example of some post-Soviet countries. The methodological basis of the study consists of methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, comparison), general scientific methods, formal-logical method of interpretation of law, etc. The components of the methodological base are objectivity and a combination of critical and rational, constructive approaches. Results: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Socialist Republics became independent sovereign states, but formally rather than practically. The military conflicts in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, as well as Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, have shown that there is still a need to reassess the role and importance of international political institutions and mechanisms for implementing international law. Discussion: the principles of territorial integrity of the state and the right of nations to self-determination are essentially related to the term «sovereignty», its interpretation and implementation in public policy. The different correlation of these principles in the state-building of modern countries leads to the intensification of geopolitical processes, often disintegration, which can lead to the development of various interethnic conflicts. The right to self-determination can be exercised in the form of autonomy within existing state borders, in the form of the creation of a sovereign state or in the form of the withdrawal of a certain people from the state (secession or irredentism). Following purely theoretical constructions, the «peoples» of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic have exercised their inalienable right to self-determination, and the «peoples» of Georgia and Moldova have violated their inalienable rights. Russia's aggression against Ukraine has become a shining example of the abuse of irredentist sentiments in society to justify armed aggression. A comparative analysis of irredentist attitudes in the civil society of post-Soviet countries allows us to highlight the features of such trends, as well as their impact on foreign policy.

Сучасні фактори впливу на глобальну публічну політику

The article analyzes the process of conceptual renewal of global public policy under the influence of factors that shape the new world reality and construct the meaningful content of the above-mentioned type of policy. Modern global public policy is the interaction of various institutionalized and noninstitutionalized actors of the political process (domestic, regional and international) regarding the identification and solution of problems facing the world community, based on the principles of hierarchical organization "from above" and self-organization of society "from below", freedom , broad communication, interest and mutual responsibility of the parties, with the involvement of intellectual expert centers, resources of states, organizations, global civil society and other international subjects. Global factors that influence the dynamics of the development of the public process at the global level are analyzed. It is noted that in conditions of increased informatization, development of new technologies, ongoing globalization of the world economy, blurring of national-state borders, increased conflict, emergence of new problems in the field of ecology, health care, etc., the agenda is objectively expanding and becoming more complicated , transformation of international and state political institutions, change of roles and functions of most actors at the national, regional and global levels, development of new strategies for collective problem solving. In the course of the study, it was established that global factors influence the renewal of the conceptual content of public policy and the objective renewal of national strategies for the development of systems. It was noted that the structural factors and trends of social development will affect Ukraine to a greater or lesser extent, and therefore it is necessary to focus attention on increasing national stability and determining effective ways of countering a wide range of risks and threats.

Climate Emergency: International and National Political Institutions Misfit-for-Purpose

Climate Emergency: International and National Political Institutions Misfit-for-Purpose

Global constitutionalism as a social concept: socio-philosophical analysis of socio-historical conditions of genesis and evolution

The authors investigated the mechanism of interconnection of ideas of global constitutionalism as a social concept with social reality, denoting the socio-historical conditions of its origin and development. The article proves that emergence and development of the social concept of global constitutionalism is due to a set of socio-economic, socio-political, historical and legal conditions that, in their interrelation and interdependence, determined the main features of this social concept, as well as the forms and stages of its implementation in the social reality of national societies and states as well as internationally. These conditions for the emergence and development of the social concept of global constitutionalism can be classified into a number of stages: the stage of the formation of the social concept of global constitutionalism, the definition of its system-forming features and the formulation of global democratic values; the stage of creating international and supranational political and legal institutions acting as unified control centres of regulation and control, which consists in the forcible export of values of constitutional democracy on a planetary scale.

The Digitalization of Agriculture and Rural Areas: Towards a Taxonomy of the Impacts

The literature about digitalization in agriculture and rural areas is vast and sectorial at the same time. Both international political institutions and practitioners are interested in promoting digital technology, indicating and describing potential benefits and risks. Meanwhile, academics analyze the actual and possible impacts of digital technologies by using case studies. However, the extensive literature makes it challenging to derive a comprehensive synthesis of the possible impacts that digital technologies are and might generate in the rural domains. In the given context, the present work aims at contributing to the construction of a framework providing a first classification of the digital technologies’ impacts to use in both research and a political agenda.

The influence of geopolitics on the national security of the state

The main task nowadays is to find strategies to ensure a high level of national security. Assurance of the state security must be based on a democratically developed society, guaranteeing of a high level of rights and freedoms of the population, as well as inheritance of European values. National security is intertwined with geopolitics in such terms as state sovereignty, geopolitical role of the country, its geopolitics and geostrategy, the correlation of universal human and national interests, etc. From the scientific point of view, national security of Ukraine can be defined as a system of state and legal as well as social guarantees of living stability and stability of development of the Ukrainian people in general and each citizen in particular, protection of their basic values and legitimate interests, sources of spiritual and material development from possible real and potential, internal and external threats. It is the national security of the state that enables effective management of a transforming society, and this is the most relevant aspect in the current conditions in Ukraine. Political and legal methods and tools, which are based on the basic principles of complexity and systematics, are fundamental factors of national state security. Ukraine's geopolitical location turns it into a kind of geopolitical center - a state that performs communicative functions between two regional systems. Thus, the geopolitical center is a kind of territory of intermediate location, which in its own way is passive, and can be activated at any time in its own interests. The geopolitical component of national security involves preserving sovereignty, territorial integrity and defining its role in the geopolitical space, while ensuring a balance of power through international political, military-political, legal, economic and humanitarian institutions.

This time is different! Or is it? NeoMalthusians and environmental optimists in the age of climate change

Warning about dire effects of climate change on armed conflict is a recent variation of a scenario that has been promoted by environmental pessimists for over two centuries. The essence is that human activities lead to resource scarcities that in turn will generate famine, pestilence, and war. This essay reviews three stages of the argument: first, the original Malthusian thesis that focused on food production. Second, the broader neoMalthusian concern from the 1970s about limits to growth and developing scarcities in a range of necessities. And recently, the specter of climate change. In each phase, the Malthusians have met firm opposition from environmental optimists, who argue that emerging scarcities can be countered by human ingenuity, technological progress, and national and international economic and political institutions and that environmental change is not in itself a major driver of human violence. In the third phase, the Malthusian case appears to be stronger because human activities have reached a level where they have a truly global impact. Environmental optimists still insist that these problems can be overcome by human ingenuity and that the long-term trend towards less violence in human affairs is unlikely to be reversed by climate change. The stakes seem higher, but the structure of the debate remains largely the same.

GLOBAL INNOVATIVE ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS OF IMERETI - REGION

Technological progress and innovation go hand in hand with the history of human civilization. It has a profound effect on the development of modern life. EU institutions, along with national institutions of member and associate countries, as well as a growing number of international and global political institutions, are major sources of 21st century formation. EU policy affects not only the lives of more than 500 million Europeans, but also global trends in areas such as climate change, resource utilization and sustainability, trade, healthcare, regional conflict resolution and poverty reduction. The aim of the paper is to show the trends of technological innovations that will play a big role in our lives in both the short and long term.

The prevalence of bilingual interaction in peer-learning

ABSTRACT In an era of globalization and global migration multilingualism represents a central educational goal for international political institutions and educational systems. However, except for bilingual schooling programs, institutionalized learning usually takes place monolingually, especially in Europe. Peer-Learning seems to be a promising method for integrating bilingualism in submersion. Pupils sharing the same languages could interact bilingually while working together without the necessity of a bilingual teacher. This paper investigates the prevalence of bilingual interaction of peer-tandems in submersion. The analysis is based upon a quasi-experimental setting with n = 114 Turkish-German bilingual pupils from German elementary schools and makes use of dyadic data analysis and non-parametric methods. The results show that (1) the prevalence of bilingual interaction is nonindependent of the dyad, (2) the learning contents do not affect the prevalence of bilingual interaction, and (3) an explicit offer is needed for the activation of bilingual interaction. Practical implications for the implementation of bilingual peer-learning in submersion will be discussed.

Decolonizing the hijab: An interpretive exploration by two Muslim psychotherapists

This article explores the professional, personal, and feminist interpretations and experiences of wearing of the hijab as a symbol of religious expression by two Muslim psychotherapists practicing in Johannesburg. By privileging these interpretations, the authors aim to demonstrate the need for questioning and resisting hegemonic representations of the hijab that have been appropriated by various international political and religious institutions for their own agendas, often to manipulate women’s sense of agency. With Western societies banning the hijab and Islamist societies making it compulsory, the agency of the wearer of the hijab is undermined. The inclusion of the voices of Muslim women, whether they wear the hijab or not, is necessary to redress the constraints on the agency of Muslim women that has emanated both from those in the West, and from within the Muslim community itself.

Nationalism and Protest

Politics within nations and between nations are by definition a product of nationalism, the consciousness which defines polities as nations, presupposing popular sovereignty and fundamental equality of national membership, thus, as democracies. Nationalism lies at the root of national and international political institutions, including the state and civil society; political values of freedom, equality, and human rights; the characteristic forms political participation in nations takes, be it the grassroot work of gradual reform, motivated by rational interest in improving the conditions of one's immediate community or wars, revolutions, and ideologically-inspired protest movements; and the specifically nationalist discontent behind ideological politics, the fear of being cheated of one's rightful share of equality (and dignity dependent on equality), being, and being treated as, less than equal, to others within the nation or on the international scene. These general considerations, derived from the historically-based analysis of comparative politics, are connected to the protest movements of the last decade, stressing the complex, double-helix manner in which nationalism affects political action: directly, by translating ways of thinking into ways of acting, and indirectly, through the characteristic psychological discomfort which makes certain strata of society perennially dissatisfied with their surroundings.

On the volatility of transnational actor populations: What has access got to do with it?

Over the past few decades, international organizations have increasingly granted transnational actors access to monitor and participate in their proceedings. Some observers have argued that stronger involvement of civil society may be a cure for the perceived democratic deficit in international political institutions. However, simply measuring levels of formal access tells us nothing about the degree to which access translates into participation. This article therefore examines the stability, or volatility, of two populations of transnational actors over a period of three decades. It finds significant differences in volatility between the two populations that levels of formal access do not seem to explain.

Tiempo, legitimidad y trabajo. La metamorfosis del tiempo en la ética del trabajo

Resumen Este texto se propone explicar el significado de las representaciones del tiempo vinculadas a la ética del trabajo postfordista. Para entender el sentido de estas representaciones se propone un análisis diacrónico. De este modo, el presente artículo se estructura en tres partes. Primeramente se describe la temporalidad de las sociedades preindustriales. En la segunda parte se muestra el proceso a través del cual el trabajo se elevó a la principal de las actividades humanas. Por último, en la tercera parte se analiza el significado de las concepciones del tiempo integradas en la ética del trabajo postfordista. Para la realización de este trabajo se han utilizado fuentes secundarias de carácter histórico y sociológico. En la tercera parte se han utilizado también los textos producidos por los especialistas en managament y por los representantes de las principales instituciones políticas internacionales, que legitiman la actual ética del trabajo.

Transformation of the Political Theory: Cosmopolitan Citizenship and Democracy

This paper is concerned with the topic of cosmopolitan citizenship and its relation to democracy. We begin by highlighting the main postulates of Kantian cosmopolitanism, as many theorists Kant contributes an idea of cosmopolitan citizenship linked to the need to establish international political institutions that support citizenship beyond an exclusively moral dimension. We then discuss the issue of the transformation undergone by the nation state in the context of globalization, particularly the loss of sovereignty of the state and the growth of multinational companies, and how these changes have come to set a new scenario for the emergence of international actors and the basis for various citizenship practices in a cosmopolitan dimension. The nature and current reach of cosmopolitan citizenship is explored through two fundamental cases: the European Union, and ecologic citizenship. Finally, we discuss cosmopolitan democracy and which ought to be its characteristics, among which we identify the establishment of supranational political institutions, the consolidation of a global civil society, and the establishment of mechanisms for citizen participation beyond the traditional ones situated in the national sphere.

Aspects still to solve for the management of kiwifruit bacterial canker caused byPseudomonas syringaepv.actinidiaebiovar 3

The pandemic wave of kiwifruit bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) biovar 3, has caused, in recent years, severe economic losses in all major areas of kiwifruit production. After the initial discouragement, each country affected by the disease reacted promptly, trying to establish and promote phytosanitary and agronomic measures aiming at reducing the incidence and severity of the disease and the risk of further spread. Within this context, considerable efforts have been made by public and private research groups, strongly supported by ad-hoc projects funded by international, national and local political and commercial Institutions. Less than 10 years after the initial outbreak of May 2008 in central Italy (Latina province), management of the disease has reached a rather satisfactory level in many areas of cultivation worldwide, despite the endemic presence of the pathogen in orchards. However, if co-existence has been successfully achieved under some circumstances, some aspects of disease control still require particular attention. Among the others, these include: (i) the rapid occurrence of copper-resistant Psa and P. syringae pv. syringae strains in New Zealand and Italy, respectively; (ii) winter and spring frosts promoting an increase in the aggressiveness of the pathogen; (iii) susceptibility of the new gold and red cultivars; (iv) control measures to perform during plant dormancy; and (v) upgrading some agronomic techniques to prevent the multiplication and spread of the pathogen within and between orchards.

The Right to Self-Determination of Peoples: Notes on its Compatibility With Three Models of Global Order

The right to self-determination has become an increasing legitimate demand of peoples seeking recognition and autonomy. In the beginning, this right was conceived in favor of peoples that depended on colonial powers, but today it has become a claim of any people that considers itself a people, as in the case of indigenous peoples or non-colonized peoples. This concept of the right to self-determination seems to be the path leading to a more heterogeneous world. Conversely, the rise of various problems that affect us globally seems to require the creation of international political institutions capable of solving these problems, which would most likely lead us toward a more homogeneous global order. Although both tendencies have powerful reasons that make them irreversible, it is not clear how they can co-exist. In this article, the author discusses whether a broad notion of the right to self-determination is compatible with three different models of global order proposed by Thomas Christiano, Rafael Domingo, and James Bohman, respectively.

Global (Im)mobility in the Mirror of Postmodern Transformations: The Political Aspect

The increasing spatial fluidity of the population in general and the inclusion of a wider range of people in international migration in particular is recognized as one of the most visible manifestations of globalization. However, processes contributing to the movement and global relations at the same time generate physical and socio-political immobility, alienation, and dissociation. The phenomenon of (im)mobility is considered from a political point of view. Making use of the institutional approach, the author defines (im)mobility as a process caused by international and national political institutions’ activities, on one hand, and stimulating the emergence of formal and informal political practices, on the other hand. Government regulation of cross-border migration is reflected in the demands of the valid grounds for the legal entering the territory of a state, the development of distance forms of mobility management, the establishment of financial mechanisms, and the imposition of restrictive migration measures. The isolating practices of modernity meet up with postmodern digital practices. Herewith, political barriers prevent the movement of potentially dangerous individuals and groups, and those not representing a danger to the community, violating human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are so-called mobility rights. Initiatives performed bypolitical parties and public associations prevent mobile citizens from accessing not only political leadership, but also their participation in political agenda setting.

Disciplining Greece: Crisis Management and Its Discontents

The strategy intended to resolve the Greek financial crisis is not a resolution strategy at all—it is more accurately conceptualized as a crisis management strategy, which is insufficient to reduce the public debt and instead fuels a deflationary spiral. Consequently, power is wielded by unelected, international political and financial institutions and actors, the crisis management regime, who have engendered a wave of discipline, surveillance, and control alongside a neoliberal restructuring of the Greek economy. JEL Classification: G01, E62, P16