Prime Minister Research Articles

Vietnam – India: Along the Road of Strategic Partnership

The author comments on the visit of the Prime Minister of Vietnam to India in late July - early August 2024. The details of the negotiations and the documents adopted as a result of them are being considered. Against this background, the dynamics of the development of the strategic partnership between the two countries is analyzed, including the motives for their interaction. The general conclusion concerning the Vietnam-India relations is made that the trend of strengthening multidisciplinary bilateral dialogue, including in the field of defense and security, continues to increase.

The curious genealogy of the “executive state”: A critical review of the latest administrative reform in Greece

Abstract This article critically discusses the latest reform of the Greek administration system, which took the form of an Act establishing an “executive state.” It intends to make two contributions to the existing literature. First, it offers a critique of the executive state. Existing critiques generally focus on the bureaucratic concentration of powers in the office of the Prime Minister or the abandonment of positive elements found in previous reform attempts. However, they largely accept the reform as a technical response to the crisis. In contrast, this article presents a comprehensive critique that fully addresses the historic origins and contemporary significance of the notion and institutional forms of the executive state, revealing it as a political, rather than technical, measure that reflects deeper views about the relationship between the state, the economy, and society. Additionally, the article assesses the two main effects of this administrative reform—the centralization and depoliticization of policymaking—as manifestations of an authoritarian shift. The second contribution concerns the literature on authoritarian liberalism, which examines the authoritarian tendencies inherent in liberal forms and ideals. While several authors have explored the authoritarian tendencies of institutional reform in the face of crisis, this article seeks to explore the authoritarian phenomenon as part of a process of market capture and to examine its effects specifically on administrative law and structures. Ultimately, this article argues that administrative reform in Greece follows a rather sinister genealogy, and must be understood as an essential counterpart to the generalized and sustained attack on social and political rights following the dictates of the market.

Let's talk about something else: how cabinet members divert issue attention in answers to parliamentary questions

ABSTRACT Numerous studies have delved into issue attention in parliamentary questions directed at the executive cabinet, yet our understanding of cabinet members’ answers to these questions remains limited. Consequently, this paper investigates whether cabinet members strictly adhere to the issues raised in questions or actively divert attention in a different direction. Analyzing over 60,000 question-answer dyads from more than 3,000 question time sessions across the parliaments of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, and the UK, the study reveals that over 70 per cent of answers divert from or ignore issues raised in the questions. Furthermore, diversion is prominent when the prime minister answers questions, especially those from the opposition and concerning cabinet-owned matters, particularly in the early stages of the electoral cycle. This research significantly contributes to legislative studies, emphasising the importance of examining the cabinet agenda and its dynamic interaction with the agenda pursued by members of parliament.

Narrativizing power in times of (many) crises: the case of British conservative leaders

ABSTRACT Before their 2024 bruising defeat, the Conservative Party had been in power for more than a decade, during which it had to deal with many exogeneous and endogenous crises. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have yet managed to win three general elections, making unprecedented gains in 2019. We argue that communication and leadership were key in establishing power relations and, within the theoretical framework of Seeger and Sellnow’s “crisis narratives” and Boin and t’Hart’s “Public leadership in times of crisis”, we propose to analyse critically the main narratives that Conservative Prime Ministers have dwelt on to secure their hold on power.

The Impact of Incitement by Public Officials in the Commission of Genocide: the Case of Ethnic Amharas in the Oromia Region

Abstract Insecurity has worsened in one of the eleven regions of Ethiopia, Oromiya, due to the killings of innocent Amharas. While there is increasing academic attention on the origins, causes, and nature of this threat, the role of the incitement of public officials in the commission of the killings and/or genocide in the region remains understudied. Accordingly, foregrounded by the need to unravel this gap, this qualitative study contributes to the literature through organised empirical research by examining Ethiopia’s public officials’ speeches and/or incitement, which might have helped in the commission of ethnic Amhara genocide in the Oromiya region since 2018. Three critical world events served as the main theoretical foundations for the analysis of incitement to genocide: the Nuremberg Prosecutions, the United Nations Genocide Convention, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It was found that both Prime Minister Abiy’s and Shimelis Abdisa’s speeches have mounted to qualify as incitements to genocide by being concomitant to the context, purpose, and causation. It is thus sufficient to remark that the speeches are used to further instigate genocide against ethnic Amharas. The study’s central argument holds that the causal link between the speech in question and the massacre in the region doubles the synthesis, although the UN Convention does not require a direct causal link.

Why History Matters? Populist Radical Right Governments in the EU and Their Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT Four European populist radical right (PRR) prime minister parties (PiS, Fidesz, SDS and FdI) have displayed differing approaches to foreign policy. In part, these differences can be explained by their specific visions of history. Central and Eastern European (CEE) parties such as PiS, Fidesz and to a certain extent SDS, became more radical and Eurosceptic when in power. FdI, on the other hand, became less Eurosceptic and more mainstream after coming to power. CEE parties have constructed their identities around anti-communism and the notion of Western betrayal, making the liberal West and the EU their significant Other. On the contrary, for FdI it is more difficult to have the EU as a significant Other in the same sense, because Italy was a founding member of the EU and its historical grievances are not directed at the West. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also been approached and used differently by the leaders of these parties. Giorgia Meloni, Janez Janša and, at least initially, Jarosław Kaczyński used the war to strengthen their European credentials, while Viktor Orbán used it to intensify his fight against the liberal West.

Symposium Review: Exploring the role of geosciences in carbon storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is crucial for clean energy transitions, yet its adoption in Southeast Asia has been slow. In India, the drive for sustainable energy and CCS research intensified after the prime minister set a net-zero target of 2070. Major industries (e.g., steel, cement, and coal-based power plants)have been encouraged to adopt sustainable practices. India is developing domestic CCS capabilities and is open to importing proven technologies.

Through the Lens of Neoclassical Realism: Understanding the Decline in Malaysia– India Relations Under Mahathir 2.0

This article suggests that since the end of the Cold War, Malaysia’s foreign policy towards a rising India has significantly intertwined with its overarching hedging calculations vis-à-vis the burgeoning power competition between the United States and China. Hedging, based on the conceptualization of Dr Cheng-Chwee Kuik, incorporates a largely structure-induced logic that encompasses a survival-driven, risk-averse and insurance-seeking behaviour to ensure the survival of less powerful states without putting all eggs in one great power’s basket due to concerns over future uncertainty. While the US and China are the most immediate and consequential structural factors impacting Malaysian foreign policy, Kuik presents the concept of dominance-denial as a sub-element of hedging, where a less powerful state aims to forge positive and functional ties with all major powers in the system based on its economic and security interests. Strengthening ties with India has been crucial in Putrajaya’s dominance-denial strategy. However, while Malaysia–India economic and defence ties continued to grow since the 1990s, bilateral relations backslid in 2019 due to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed’s provocative stance towards New Delhi, leading to a considerable decline in economic relations. Therefore, this article seeks to theoretically explain these constraints in the relations between Putrajaya and New Delhi through a neoclassical realist lens in order to supplement Kuik’s hedging framework.

Wartime Management of the Government of National Defense Headed by Wincenty Witos during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920

Wincenty Witos is one of the undisputed Fathers of Independence of Poland, reborn in November 1918 after 123 years of partition. An outstanding statesman, leader of the people’s movement. Three-time Prime Minister of the Polish government in 1920–1921, 1923, 1926. During the Polish-Soviet War, Witos headed the Government of National Defense, which lasted 433 days, including 254 during the war. When analyzing his management as Prime Minister, two stages should be distinguished. In the first one, he was absorbed in matters of war. He was in favor of concluding peace as soon as possible, which he expressed in his exposé in 1920. In his second exposé, he worked on the reconstruction of the country after the war and the further development of the Republic of Poland as a democratic state. During the war, Witos’s role in mobilizing peasants to participate in the defense of threatened borders, as well as defending independence in the war with Bolshevik Russia in 1920, was particularly important. The article discusses the decisions made regarding management during the war: mobilizing society to rally around the authorities of the reborn Poland and defend the country’s independence, to reject Bolshevik propaganda and fight for the future of the Polish nation and state. The practice of war management was manifested in frequent field trips, organizing support and supplies for the population. Witos paid particular attention to the Borderlands. He emphasized that the presence of the head of the government and this direct contact made it possible to learn about many difficult problems of the reborn state, and at the same time, direct contact with the authorities was an element that bound the population to this state, and the people did not feel alone in solving these problems.

Indo-American Relations during Donald Trump Era: Implications for Pakistan

The Indo-American relations during the Donald Trump era undertook a noteworthy transformation, from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021. Major components of the relationship between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and American President Donald Trump and the implications of their relationship for Pakistan are stated in this research. Throughout Trump's Presidency, there was a fusion of worries and strategic collaborations in Indo-US relations. The American administration recognized and admitted India as a vital player in the Indo-Pacific region to counterbalance China's rising influence there. This was mirrored in the "2+2" dialogues and the "Howdy Modi" event as these events indicated the firming of economic, military, and political assistance. The extending Indo-American cooperation carried serious implications for Pakistan's traditional alliance with the United States. The United States forced Pakistan to address subjects like terrorism and stability of the region and this pressure stressed bilateral ties.

The United States Role of the Occurrence of Violence in Cyprus

Cyprus used to be under occupation of the foreign states for many centuries and sovereignty usually with few exceptions was not transferred peacefully. As it is well known, in the 19th century, use of force in international relations was seen as normal. In the 1878 however, transformation of sovereignty in Cyprus from the Ottoman Empire to the United Kingdom (UK) was by peaceful means. The UK ruled Cyprus mostly in peace until the uprising in 1931. The upheaval of the Greek Cypriots against the UK was to unite Cyprus with Greece (Enosis). The uprising was settled by violence and the constitutional rights suspended immediately. In 1955 when the riot of the Greek Cypriots occurred again this time the UK was successful to get support of Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots and converted the anti-colonial struggle to the ethnic strife. Clearly, the occurrence of violence in Cyprus in 20th Century begun during the British period but it continued after the colonial period. Although the United States (US) refrained direct involvement to Cyprus problem it assisted to the formation of the Republic of Cyprus by 1960s. During the Cold War conditions, the US had to involve to the Cyprus problem because of two reasons: Firstly, in order to prevent a war between Türkiye and Greece, the two “motherlands” of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots; secondly to stop the violence between two local communities. In Washington DC the US leadership met with Greek and Turkish prime ministers in 1964 and they decided to solve the Cyprus problem forever. In Geneva the US representative had several meetings with the officials of Greece and Türkiye. There, the US former secretary of state offered his plan that included the use of violence for the dissolution of the Republic of Cyprus. The US plan could not be implemented at the time but after 10 years, its spirit became the source of the violence in Cyprus. In this study mainly the role of the US in occurrence of violence in the island will be studied.

Assessing the Level of People’s Satisfaction with the Quality of Information About Administrative Procedures on the National Public Service Portal in Yen Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi City

On March 12, 2019, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed the "Decision approving the National Public Service Portal (NPSP) Project" with the goal of improving the quality and efficiency of public services. However, after five years of implementation, certain limitations in conducting administrative procedures on the NPSP have affected people's satisfaction. From that reality, the authors were motivated to conduct research on the topic to contribute measures to minimize the difficulties of people in the area. By combining a comprehensive literature review with structured surveys involving a sample of 162 residents from Yen Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, the authors revealed that while citizen satisfaction with the quality of information on administrative procedures on the NPSP is generally high, there is inconsistency across different aspects when evaluated against internationally verified assessment criteria and scales. Through that current situation, the research team offered some insights and proposed measures to further improve the quality of information on administrative procedures on the national public service portal to increase people's satisfaction with the service.

From Oslo to Be’eri: how the 30-years-long peace delusion led to Hamas’s 10/7 massacres

ABSTRACT The failure to prevent Hamas’s slaughter of some 1,300 Israelis on 7 October 2023 – the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – is a direct result of an emergency phone consultation three hours before the terror group’s invasion of Israel with the participation of the IDF’s and Shin Bet’s top leaders, who decided to do nothing despite acute warning signals and failed to alert the Gaza division commander and the political echelon to the imminent attack. Had they taken the minimal precautionary measures, the catastrophe would have been averted altogether. To fully understand the mindset underlying this monumental blunder requires tracing its evolution within the context of the 30-years-long Oslo peace delusion in general, and during the turbulent year preceding the 10/7 massacres in particular. That is: the substitution of a grand strategic deception aimed at Israel’s destruction for a true peace process and the attendant emasculation of the IDF’s military capabilities and combative/offensive ethos, on the one hand, and the unravelling of Israel’s sociopolitical fabric that culminated in the 2023 mass civil disobedience that enticed Hamas into action, on the other. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposed the Oslo process from the outset and managed to neutralise its most catastrophic potential calamity – the establishment of a Palestinian state committed to Israel’s destruction in the West Bank and Gaza – failed to extricate Israel from this disastrous course and was ironically forced to bear its full brunt on 7 October 2023.

(Un)dead past of 1984 Sikh massacre in Jaspreet Singh’s Helium

ABSTRACT Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination followed the 1984 state-sanctioned massacre of Sikhs. This historical violence haunts survivors, and its mediation in cultural texts reshapes the interplay between history and memory, voicing forgotten narratives. However, the complex historical agency and collective silences on the 1984 Sikh genocide leave its cultural and literary representations undertheorized. Jaspreet Singh's Helium (2013), serving as a cultural archive, delves into the haunting legacies of this genocide, highlighting its role in memorializing historical loss. Applying hauntology and Agamben's homo sacer, this article investigates how spectral wounds reveal dystopic violence, excluding Sikhs from legal protection.

Los retratos políticos de los Grandes Anales de quince días de Quevedo

This article examines the literary portraits of key political figures, including three Spanish kings – Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV – and their prime ministers, the Duke of Lerma, the Duke of Uceda, and Friar Luis de Aliaga, as presented by Quevedo at the conclusion of Grandes anales de quince días. The study focuses on both aesthetic and iconographic perspectives, drawing connections between Quevedo’s literary depictions and the known painted portraits of these individuals. Many of these artworks can be viewed in the Museo del Prado, which houses a significant portion of the Royal Collection – paintings that Quevedo likely had access to. The primary objective of this article is to explore the affinities between Quevedo’s literary descriptions and the visual representations of these figures in the corresponding portraits.

New democracy and centre-right dominance in Greece: a new normal?

ABSTRACT In the parliamentary elections of 2023, the ruling New Democracy (ND) party of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was re-elected triumphantly. ND’s victory marks an unprecedented moment of centre-right dominance in Greece since 1974 and goes against the trend of the so-called ‘crisis of the centre-right’ elsewhere in Europe. This article claims that ND’s strategy under Mitsotakis has been typical of the winning formula of other centre-right parties in Europe in previous decades. Yet, that this formula is now so successful in Greece owes much to the country’s post-crisis context, out of which the Mitsotakis leadership emerged. Given the geopolitical position of Greece and the historical intertwining of the question of its international orientation with major cleavages of domestic politics, the article argues that the success of Mitsotakis draws particularly on a certain form of posturing in foreign and European policy that allows him to reconcile contradictions inside ND’s electoral coalition.

The hunger strike as a biopolitical technology: re-reading the 1981 Irish republican prison protest

ABSTRACT This article uses the case of the 1981 Irish republican prison protest to show that indefinite hunger strikes can force Euromodern states to the negotiating table by undercutting their commitment to good government. Drawing on a Foucauldian analysis of biopower and political reason, I argue that these acts of willed self-starvation exert pressure on state officials by exploiting a tension between the modern state’s juridical claim to sovereignty and its biopolitical investment in fostering life. In the case of the famed IRA hunger strike on the H-Blocks, the archive shows that the Thatcher government experienced more pressure to reach a negotiated settlement than the prime minister or her top advisers publicly acknowledged. Such pressure, however, stemmed not from a moral or humanitarian investment in saving the individual hunger strikers’ lives, but instead from officials’ biopolitical concern that the protest was undermining British attempts to restore ‘life as usual’ in the conflicted region. Ultimately, Thatcher was willing to let ten of the Irish republican strikers die rather than grant them any concessions that might indicate they were political prisoners. The article closes by showing how an indefinite hunger strike’s efficacy is often foreclosed in securitized and postcolonial contexts like that of Northern Ireland, where the protesters can be framed as a ‘biopolitical remainder’ that is allowed to die so that the broader society might thrive.

Leadership and Legacy of Julius Nyerere as Prime Minister of Tanganyika and President of Tanzania

Research Aims: This study evaluates Julius Nyerere’s leadership by examining his socialist policies and their effects on Tanzania’s development. It explores the ideological foundations of his leadership, assesses the socio-economic impact of the Ujamaa policy in rural and urban contexts, investigates his strategies for fostering national unity and political stability, and extracts lessons for contemporary African governance. Design/methodology/approach: Employing a qualitative approach, the study draws on secondary sources, including archival records, Nyerere’s speeches, government documents, and scholarly journal articles. Research Findings: The findings highlight Nyerere’s notable achievements in nation-building, political stability, and African liberation, while also addressing the economic difficulties arising from forced collectivization and disruptions to traditional agricultural practices. The study recognizes limitations in evaluating the long-term socio-economic impacts, particularly on rural communities affected by villagization. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This article provides valuable insights into African socialism and proposes new directions for future research on the enduring legacy of Nyerere’s leadership. It recommends further research to compare Nyerere’s governance with other African socialist leaders.

Development with Identity: Development Policy in a Multiethnic State Nepal

The concept of development with identity also termed ethno-development refers to development policies that are sensitive to the needs of indigenous people and ethnic minorities. It is the opposite concept of the ethnocidal strategy of development. As the then prime minister of Nepal KP. Sharma Oli proclaimed that the government would destroy the huge stone in the Saptakoshi / Koshi as it hindered the steamship on its way in a public program in Biratnagar, people from Kirati community, one of the groups of indigenous nationalities of Nepal, opposed the assertion and launched a series of protest programs since the huge stone has been supposed to be a mythically historical stone for them. This event raised the issue of ethno-development. In this article, I have argued that the Eurocentric and purely economy-centric development practices have created the condition of conflict rather than cohesion in the multiethnic country since social, civilizational, and cultural dimensions of the people are entirely ignored by this practice. Therefore, development with identity is an appropriate policy of development for a country like Nepal having diversity in terms of civilization, ethnicity, culture, and language. I have adopted in-depth interviews based on the qualitative approach in this research.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE VOTE NO-CONFIDENCE AGAINST IMRAN KHAN

Imran Khan was the first prime minister in Pakistan who was removed from his office through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. Before Imran Khan, such motions were initiated against Benazir Bhutto in 90s and Shaukat Aziz 2007, but the oppositions could not succeed. Both primary and secondary data have been consulted for identifying the factors which has been anaylzed through content analysis techniques. This manuscript attempts to explore and analyze the factors that contributed to the successful culmination of the vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan. We found that Imran Khan’s relations with the establishment, internal rift within the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, stubbornness towards his rivals, over-confidence and Khan’s policy towards Russia and America paved the way to the success of vote of no-confidence in April 2022.