European Journal of Transformation Studies

Csos' humanitarian support for Ukraine to counter Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion

Iryna Tsikul — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Only truth!

Arkadiusz Modrzejewski — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How Ukrainian society is mobilizing and uniting in the light of the Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine

Natalia Rotar — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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Marta Pachocka, Agnieszka Kłos — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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István József Polgár — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Predictable but unbelievable. Russian war against Ukraine

Nataliia Nechaieva-Yuriichuk — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Terror as a model of Russia's war against Ukraine

Andrii Kutsyk, Maria Yuzyk — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Russian war against Ukraine: how to fight back aggression

Anatoliy Kruglashov — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Problems and perspectives of the limited integration in the globalization processes of the Mena region

Vittorio Amato, Lucia Simonetti — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The paper provides an overview of the the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) area. The aims is, through the analysis of the complex political and economic scenario, to understand the lack of integration and participation to the globalization process of this region. Concrete development will only be possible through a significant expan-sion of the private sector, which, however, cannot play a leading role in the absence of a reliable banking system. Positive political changes will be an essential complement to the economic transition, especially as civil society seems to increasingly demand them.

Tbilisi urban social movements: on the verge of success/failure

Salome Dundua, Tamar Karaia, Sandro Tabatadze — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The movements selected for the study “Defend Vake Park” and “No to Panorama Tbilisi!” developed in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in almost one period of time. However, the results of the movements are different: the first can be attributed to the category of successful movements and the second - to the category of unsuccessful ones. By studying various secondary and primary sources and interviewing actors involved in activism, we argue that the results of selected movements were influenced by the following factors: properly planned strategy, investor/investment factor, and favorable political context.

Competitiveness of the Slovak Republic in international trade

Zuzana Brinčíková — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The paper analyses the relative competitiveness of the Slovak Republic and examines in which product groups the country has a comparative advantage compared with the rest of the world. The most commonly used method of calculating the country’s comparative advantage is the indicator of revealed comparative advantage. The aim of the paper is to analyse the current comparative advantages of the Slovak Republic through the calculation of the RCA indexes. The application of the Slovak and worldwide export data to RCA index allows us to identify in which sectors Slovakia has got the comparative advantage and is competitive at global level. The analysis of these industries also allows us to identificate the threats to the future economic development of Slovakia.

Coronovirus Covid-19 like a trigger of sovereignization

Tetiana Poiarkova — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Pandemic of COVID-19 has already become a historical event, aftermath of which revealed the disability of suprastate institutions and international organizations to take flash decisions in order to save life of an average person. These circumstances determined the aim of the article to unite theoretical and applied researches of interdependence between emergency situations and sovereignization. It has been determined that the common trait of these practices is the decline of democratic freedoms and processes because of life values reappraisal. The article also considers the reasons of reconstruction of neopatrimonialism in post-soviet countries during the Pandemic.

The nexus between social unrest and migrant remittances: empirical evidence from Georgia

Yılmaz Onur Ari, Ümit Koç — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The paper examines the social unrest and migrant remittances relationship for Georgia using monthly time series data covering January 2007– July 2019. The Granger Causality Test was employed in the application of the econometric technique. Frequency domain causality test was also used in order to empower the findings of the study. The empirical findings showed that there is a bidirectional causality between the reported social unrest index (RSUI) and the remittance inflow to Georgia. Besides, frequency domain causality test results indicated that RSUI was the Granger cause of remittance inflow in the medium term (7-10 months), while remittance inflow was the Granger cause of RSUI in the short term (2-6 months). Social unrest comprises protests based on basic economic needs such as food, gas, electricity etc. Therefore, social unrest can be a supportive factor of remittances inflow to Georgia. This is in line with the view that remittances sent by Georgian immigrants to their families in Georgia are used for consumption rather than investments. On the other hand, remittances can be a determinant of social unrest for Georgia because the existence of separatist movements in Abkhazia and former South Ossetia can be interpreted as remittances can be an important source to fund these movements.

The Official State Narrative on the Belarusian Protests of 2020 and Its Correlations to Non-Official Uncredited Belarusian Media with Foreign Representations

Olha Martyniuk, Aliaksandr Shuba — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

With the beginning of the protests against the presidential election fraud in August 2020, A. Lukashenka and the Belarusian state media attempted to create and promote their interpretation of the nature of the protests, which took place in many cities and towns across Belarus. These protests were the largest, both in terms of sheer size and duration, in the history of independent Belarus. Our critical analysis of the events and the way they were depicted through media channels consists of the following elements: (a) how Belarus’ state narrative about the protests developed in August-September 2020, (b) the rhetoric used by the Belarusian state to describe the protests, (c) the protesters, and (d) the use of force against the protesters. Using a short contextualisation, the paper aims to bring and highlight parallel rhetoric of non-accredited Belarusian media with its representations in the Russian and Ukrainian media.

Power of Leadership Motivation in the Banking Industry

Aima Ali, Muhammad Mudasar Abbasi — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Leadership and Motivation are key factors associated with success and failure of any organization. In accordance with Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the motivation influences the managers while adopting a leadership style. This study examines the impact of Leadership Motivation on Organizational Performance with mediating effect of Leadership styles. This research focuses on motivation of leaders, their leadership style and its impact on organizational performance and developing the concept of mediating role of Leadership Styles as a banking sector nowadays is in the race of facing challenges in order to become competitive and also to improve the performance. The descriptive statistics and Mediation model 4 of Hayes [2013] PROCESS macro regression-based approach was used to analyze the data. The findings suggested that both aspects of Motivation, i.e. intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation, have a positive and significant effect on organization performance. The leadership style acts as a strong mediator between motivation and organizational performance. The study has provided good construction towards literature regarding the Leadership Motivation for improving organizational performance.

Adama Barrow’s presidency in the Gambia. Recapitulation of five years of the new rule

Margot Stańczyk-Minkiewicz — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Gambia, the smallest state in continental Africa, has been undergoing a through transformation since the beginning of 2017. This is the outcome of a change in many years’ rule, initially of President Dawda Jawara (24 years) and then Yahya Jammeh (22 years), and the take-over of power by Adama Barrow. The incumbent president, who has been holding the position for five years, bearing in mind numerous problems resulting from the heritage of his predecessors, among others abuse of power, ignorance for the constitutional rules, failure to observe the rule of law and violation of human rights, has set a goal for himself and his associates to prepare a strategy for the repair and development of the state, which could guarantee that the Republic of The Gambia transforms into a state with democratic foundations, ensuring safety and prosperity to all its citizens. It is obvious that such a short time to implement the new policy cannot produce spectacular successes, yet the purpose of the paper is to present an assessment of the first five years of Barrow’s presidency. It is an attempt at answering questions as to which of the assumed goals show any progress and which still remain in the sphere of the new president’s unre-alised aspirations.

In the text below, the author primarily uses three research methods. The task of the institutional and legal method is to analyse the functioning of the political institutions in The Gambia (reasonability of the adopted strategies, verification of the functions of state institutions with respect to the citizens; assessment of the effects of adopted premises; analysis of impact of quality of the state institutions on the efficient or inefficient functioning of the state). The system method is used to analyse a group of elements, i.e., the political system in the state, the relations of such elements (authorities, offices, parties, etc.) and their reciprocal impact, as well as impact on the environment and behaviour (level of residents’ life, observance of human rights, degree of civil society). In turn, the method of statistical analysis is used to compare the statistical data prepared regularly by international institutions that assess the level of a state’s correct operation.

Specialized military journalism in the system of mass communication during the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014-2022): comparative analysis of world and Ukrainian mass media

Oksana Kosiuk — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The article gives an analysis of world military publications and militarized journalism in comparison with the Ukrainian comparables in historical retrospective view and in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is still ongoing. Special attention is paid to international military-focused media standards and specific military (mainly print) mass media: Stars and Stripes, Milli təhlükəsizlik və hərbi elmlər, Narodna Armiia, Narodna Armiia (People’s Army), Army Inform, Officer of Ukraine, on occasion – The Washington Post, The New York Times and others. In the proces of research, it was found out that military journalism has almost completely transformed into universal journalism. And for some reason, specialized printed editions of military focus have closed down in recent years. And if in Ukraine it is associated with the denationalization of the mass media, then abroad, it is most likely connected with the processes of digitalization and the separation of journalism from ideologies and state policies. As a result, the remaining military mass media are also changing their format, approaching global brands such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Le Mond. However, this does not prevent them from putting information and analytics about Russia’s war against Ukraine in the foreground and highlighting key points as reality and the principle of objectivity require. And although the Ukrainian mass media in this regard are far from ideal, their ideological bias should be attributed to the war, an organically inherent ritual model of communication and still a close connection with the socialist past. Since military journalism is currently working in extreme conditions, it is difficult to draw comprehensive conclusions, but it is already clear that specialized military media are relevant and promising for scientific research.

Collaborative platforms as alternative players of global politics: Ukraine Defense Contact Group and Kyiv Security Compact 2022

Anastasiia Sychova — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In the article, the author considers the possibility of new global actors in the context of rethinking security architecture. Using G. Grevi’s interpolarity approach and the “thousand plateaus” concept by J. Deleuze and F. Guattari, the researcher forms a theoretical basis for the categories of the collaborative window and collaborative platform. The author offers her vision of the external and internal structure of the collaborative platform as a transnational interactive place for joint actions. Applying the case study, the researcher considers the Ukraine Defense Contact Group as a kind of prototype of a collaborative platform, while the Kyiv Security Compact is the legal basis of a collective security institution.

Dynamics of aggressive discourse on Ukraine and the West in the Russian pro-government media in 2000-2022

Roman Kyrychenko, Svіtlana Salnikova — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this research is a build of a tool that helps to detect latent meanings of Russian propaganda messages. For this purpose, a new approach to building timeaware sentence embeddings was created, using the logic of the word2vec word embeddings model. An array of articles (754,372) from more than 50 Russian news websites for the years 2000–2022 was analyzed. In the dynamics of aggressive discourse towards the West and Ukraine, the key year is 2014 - the year of the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine. But at the same time, Russian propaganda positions it as a struggle for influence with the West, and this perfectly demonstrates the synchronicity of anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

Balancing policy of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the face of the war in Ukraine

Wojciech Grabowski — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the balancing policy of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in relation to the war in Ukraine and the political and economic consequences of this policy. The main hypothesis holds that the foreign policy of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf toward the war in Ukraine is primarily a function of their relations with the USA and Russia and their own political/economic interests/gains (primarily the enhancing of their own power position in the international arena). Three research questions were posed to verify this hypothesis: 1) Why are the Arab states of the Persian Gulf pursuing a balancing policy in relations to the war in Ukraine? 2) How do US-Arab and Russian-Arab relations translate into the foreign policy strategy of the oil monarchies toward the war in Ukraine? 3) How will the balancing policies of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf affect their relations with the USA and Russia? The paper makes a reference to the theory of neorealism, thanks to which selected determinants of the policy of balancing/non-involvement in the war in Ukraine were indicated.

Crime against memory or cultural genocide? On the destruction of the cultural heritage of Ukraine during Russian aggression in the ХХІ century

Alla Kravchenko, Iryna Kyzymenko, Nataliia Husieva, Olena Krasilnikova — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The relevance of the article is seen in the fact that it is one of the first attempts of systematic scientific research and analysis of the current state of cultural heritage objects of Ukraine which were destroyed or partially destroyed during the Russian aggression against Ukraine, starting from February 24, 2022. There were determined losses, caused by the looting of cultural and art institutions by the occupation forces, and world practices, the experience of various scenarios of reconstruction of cultural objects as well as the measures of European partners aimed at preserving and rebuilding the cultural heritage of Ukraine were analysed. The research methodology is represented by a set of general scientific philosophical methods, including theoretical and empirical levels of cognition, special historical methods of scientific cognition, principles of historicism, scientificity, systematicity, and complexity.

The Russian war against Ukraine and remake of European security architecture: dynamics and prospects

Lasha Bazhunaishvili, Irakli Gorgiladze — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In the first decade of the 21st century, Russia once again brought the Primacy of Power in the bosom of the Liberal Order established in 1991. As a result of the 5-day aggressive war against Georgia in 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the principles based on the 1975 Helsinki Act on the inviolability of borders, non-use of force, and protection of sovereignty in Europe actually lost their relevance. What about the European security system that was established in 1991 has collapsed after the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 2022. Post-Cold War European peace-keeping Organizations, (ie OSCE and Council of Europe) international law mechanisms (1975, Final Act of Helsinki, 1991 Charter of New Europe, etc.) and the European soft deterrence strategy actually were unable to prevent and deter aggressive revisionist politics of Kremlin regarding neighboring countries (usually called “Near Abroad” by Kremlin). As a result, the European region and its security architecture faced an acute crisis the analogue of which has not been seen since the end of the Cold War and which is periodically exacerbated by nuclear threats both the high risks of using tactical nuclear weapons and potential missile strikes on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants which are situated in the area of battles. No matter how the outcome of the war in Ukraine ends, it has fundamentally changed the European region already, especially the geopolitical picture of the Black Sea basin, the balance of power, and the strategic culture of the acting powers, which would be a determining factor of regional security developments for the next decades. The present article discusses the peculiarities of the formation of the European security system after the end of the Cold War. Specific attention is paid to the actual issue dealing with the dilemma of which security system was important for future Europe ‘OSCE First’ or “NATO First Strategy”? The weaknesses of the European security architecture and its underlying causes became the basis of the biggest military-political crisis in Europe. An important aim of the paper is to present the dynamics of military and political events in the region based on the analysis of current events, as well as by observing the interests of global and regional actors acting in the region and their policies, to determine in a theoretical aspect what kind of international order emerging in the Euro-Atlantic area, how transformative will be the Ukrainian war, what kind of changes brought it in the current European order and what kind of consequences are expected for future. In the final section, the article presents possible scenarios of European security transformations.