Geostrategy

Because of its extensive Mediterranean history, France had a particular responsibility when the Arab revolutions broke out in 2011. The strategies defined by Paris in Libya and Syria, implemented through foreign policy, have proved to be less effective than expected. Although distinct, both were pursuing the same aim: the expansion of friendly democratic regimes in the Southern European neighborhood bloc.

VI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Historia Militar (ASEHISMI) - Dominio político y expansionismo militar en la Historia. Granada, 21-24/V/2019: Las guerras dácicas de Trajano (101-106 d.C.) se saldaron con las mayores adquisiciones territoriales realizadas por el Imperio romano en el Continente europeo desde el principado de Augusto. Sin embargo, el expansionismo territorial y político, una de las causas fundamentales del conflicto entre el Imperio romano y el Estado dacio, no ha sido objeto, hasta la fecha, de un estudio concienzudo y renovador en la totalidad de sus perspectivas. Del mismo modo, la historiografía especializada ha puesto con demasiada frecuencia su atención exclusivamente sobre los motivos y procesos que llevaron al estallido del conflicto desde un punto de vista predominantemente romano, ignorando casi por completo la perspectiva del reino dacio y sus aliados en esta cuestión.
Partiendo de innovadores planteamientos en torno a la geopolítica del conflicto y sus antecedentes, esta investigación pretende abordar cómo las pretensiones territoriales y las aspiraciones a la hegemonía regional sobre el curso del Danubio y las costas del Mar Negro por parte del Estado dacio, jugaron un papel esencial en la puesta en marcha de las guerras dácicas de Domiciano y Trajano. Como veremos, desde el año 69 d.C., los soberanos dacios trataron de desplazar al poder romano del espacio danubiano mediante una astuta combinación de presión diplomática, influencia política y guerra abierta. Estos procesos se materializaron en una precisa y constante política expansionista que se extendió hasta la destrucción del reino dacio durante la segunda guerra dácica de Trajano (105-106 d.C.), llegando a desencadenar una serie de reiterados intentos para anexionar militarmente diversos territorios en la provincia romana de Mesia Inferior.
En este sentido, el Imperio romano marchó a la guerra, inicialmente, en defensa de sus propios intereses y de su amenazada hegemonía política en la región. El ascenso a la púrpura del emperador Trajano en 98 d.C. conllevaría la asunción final, por parte de Roma, de la anexión de Dacia y la expansión territorial al norte del Danubio como única solución viable a la amenaza que el Estado dacio y sus aliados suponían, no ya para la posición preponderante del Imperio en la Europa danubiana, sino incluso para su mera presencia en la región.

Global Strategy Report 19/2020 - https://global-strategy.org/el-emperador-trajano-y-la-estrategia-romana-en-las-guerras-dacicas-un-analisis-a-nivel-geopolitico-operacional-y-tactico/
Cabe preguntarse cuál fue la contribución del emperador Trajano, como comandante en jefe de las fuerzas romanas, a la planificación y desarrollo de las operaciones durante las guerras dácicas (101-106 d.C.) y, por lo tanto, al decisivo resultado de las mismas. ¿Qué clase de general era Trajano? ¿Cuál fue su catadura como estratega en la guerra contra el reino dacio y en los desafíos que este le planteó? ¿Qué influencia ejerció su Estado Mayor en la dirección acontecimientos? En este artículo analizamos el desempeño del emperador Trajano como comandante al nivel geopolítico y estratégico, operacional y táctico, en el contexto de las guerras dácicas y de su singular impacto en el desarrollo histórico de la Europa danubiana.

Global Strategy Report 10/2020 - https://global-strategy.org/las-guerras-dacicas-de-domiciano-y-trajano-85-106-d-c-la-batalla-por-la-hegemonia-en-la-europa-danubiana/
Entre los años 69 y 106 d.C. el Imperio romano se enfrentó a una amenaza de primer orden contra su hegemonía sobre la Europa danubiana y balcánica que puso en serio peligro incluso su mera presencia en la región: bajo el enérgico liderazgo del rey Decébalo, el Estado dacio, había conformado una formidable entente con el objetivo de convertirse en la nueva superpotencia en el curso medio y bajo del Danubio y las costas occidentales del Mar Negro. Alcanzar esta meta, sin embargo, pasaba necesariamente por desplazar a Roma de la región y, por lo tanto, por un conflicto directo a gran escala que, independientemente de su resultado, cambiaría para siempre la historia de la Europa oriental.

During the first half of the 1st century BC the geto-dacians became the greatest superpower of Eastern Europe under the leadership of one of their most famous kings: Burebista. After founding the Dacian Estate through the unification of the diverse geto-dacian tribes, Burebista led his people to build an authentic “empire” that stretched from the middle Danube course to the western Black Sea coast, and from nowadays Slovakia to the limits of Tracia and Dalmatia. Through the main literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources we are going to analyze the expansionist process accomplished by Burebista, its premises, causes, sequence of events and consequences.

In light of the recent passing of the neoliberal geostrategic tactician, Zbigniew Brzezinski, I felt it was time to revisit his 1997 text "Grand Chessboard". Within this book, US Foreign policy objectives were so succinctly explained as the geopolitical landscape moved so turbulently into the beginning decades of the 21st Century.

Despite his vision of American foreign policy as "benign and visionary", the tone of Brzezinski's text is concerned with preserving U.S hegemony as the world's "first truly global superpower".  He saw Eurasia as the "Grand Chessboard" on which this struggle to maintain "continental equilibrium" was to be played out on the road to establishing global governance.

"The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power. ... 

... it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America."

The insertion of American idealism into the politics of the Eurasian landmass first occurred with The U.S entry into the First World War, and continued after the Second World War with the ideological struggle with the Soviets during the Cold War. The fate of the continental landmass became dominated by the power struggle between the two major superpowers. 

The struggle was between a great sea power (the U.S) and a great land power (the U.S.S.R), but the decisive area of dispute took place in a central Asian country that still has vital strategic importance on the world stage. ...

Find Out More:
http://www.whenthenewsstops.org/2017/06/the-grand-chessboard-american-primacy.html

Patrząc na Turcję pod kątem geopolitycznym widać, że jest to kraj, który nie tylko łączy ze sobą Europę i Azję, lecz też jest sąsiadem krajów Bliskiego Wschodu, poprzez które rozciąga swe wpływy aż po Afrykę, a jednocześnie jest też krajem, na którego obszarze przez tysiące lat rozwinęło się wiele potężnych cywilizacji. Turcja, dzięki Jedwabnemu Szlakowi z Azji do Europy, stała się swego rodzaju pomostem handlowym i geokulturalnym.  Wbrew tezie Huntingtona o konflikcie między cywilizacjami, przez całą historię oddziaływanie na siebie kultur Azji i Europy odbywało się poprzez Turcję. Patrząc z tego punktu widzenia należy podkreślić, że Anatolia jest nie tylko pomostem międzykulturowego i międzywyznaniowego dialogu i tolerancji, ale dysponuje również potencjałem geopolitycznym, geoekonomicznym i geokulturowym, który umożliwia gospodarczą i polityczną współpracę Azji i Europy.

Wyraźnie widać, że w ostatnim okresie świat zmienia się bardzo szybko. Zaiste, wzajemne stosunki gospodarcze i społeczne na świecie zdają się jawić jako swego rodzaju uzależnienie. Działalność gospodarcza wykroczyła już poza granice państw i rozpoczął się proces wzajemnego oddziaływania na skalę międzynarodową. W takim więc środowisku tworzenie prawidłowej polityki, bez uwzględnienia globalizacji, nie jest niczym więcej jak jedynie senną mrzonką.

Wraz z globalizacja pojęcie państwa narodowego traci swe znaczenie; stopniowo natomiast coraz bardziej popularne staje się pojęcie państwa internacjonalistycznego i pluralistycznego. Inaczej mówiąc, spośród czynników, które tworzą pojęcie państwa, czynnik „naród” coraz bardziej traci na znaczeniu, natomiast czynnik „obywatelstwo” – coraz bardziej zyskuje.

Wszelkie zdarzenia zachodzące gdzieś daleko, bez względu na to, czy mają charakter gospodarczy, oddziałują na nas coraz szybciej i w coraz bardziej bezpośredni sposób niż w przeszłości. Kryzys w roku 2001, który rozpoczął się od niewielkiej sprawy, ogarnął wkrótce cały świat; kryzys, nawet w jednym kraju, wpływa na cały glob. Wojna czy powstanie, jeśli wybuchnie nawet w odległym kraju, ma gospodarczy wpływ na cały świat i bezpośrednio wstrząsa cenami rynkowymi ropy naftowej we wszystkich państwach.

Żyjemy w czasach, kiedy dużego znaczenia nabierają właściwe zrozumienie wpływu okresu po Zimnej Wojnie i procesu globalizacji na równowagę międzynarodową, oraz geopolityczne podejście do kształtowania polityki w sposób odpowiedni do zmieniających się koniunktur.  W czasie, gdy wzajemne oddziaływanie polityczne, ekonomiczne i kulturowe państw i narodów staje się coraz silniejsze, znaczenia w polityce światowej nabierają kraje rozwijające się, które awansowały do roli globalnego i regionalnego aktora. Proces ten widoczny jest szczególnie wyraźnie na obszarach geograficznych, gdzie aktor odgrywa swą rolę czynnie, i powoduje konieczność dokonania przez państwa ponownego przewartościowania oceny niezmienności miejsca wedle innych danych.

Fundamentem Unii Europejskiej jest zapewnienie pokoju między państwami tego kontynentu. Metodą umożliwiająca osiągnięcie tego celu jest wzajemna zależność ekonomiczna, którą z kolei zapewniają wspólne rozwiązania instytucjonalne oparte na zasadzie wspólnych korzyści ekonomicznych.

Tymczasem zaś członkowie Unii Europejskiej nie potrafią udzielić odpowiedzi na pytanie „co chcemy zrobić razem jako 27 krajów?”. Jedną z podstawowych przyczyn kryzysu, w jakim kraje te obecnie się znajdują, jest niepewność co do roli, jaką Unia ma odgrywać w świecie. U podstaw powstania Unii Europejskiej nie leży jedność kulturowa. Wprost przeciwnie: zróżnicowanie kulturowe. Nie ma czegoś takiego jak kultura Unii Europejskiej. Są jednak ludzie, którzy chcieliby widzieć Unię jako model wspólnej kultury. Model ten jest jednakże odrzucany przez większość.............

Wraz z odbudową autorytarnych struktur rosyjskiej państwowości pojawiła się kwestia zwiększania wpływu Federacji Rosyjskiej w stosunkach międzynarodowych. Jego istota zaczęła się wyrażać przejściem od geopolityki do geoekonomiki z uwzględnieniem celów wynikających z tej pierwszej, tj. odzyskania wpływów i znaczenia, którymi cieszył się Związek Radziecki. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przybliżenie geopolitycznych aspektów polityki energetycznej Federacji Rosyjskiej w odniesieniu do:
- Podstaw rosyjskiej polityki energetycznej konstytuujących realizację jej celów politycznych, gospodarczych i geostrategicznych;
- Uwarunkowań realizacji rosyjskiej polityki energetycznej na obszarach: Azji Środkowej, Bliskiego Wschodu, Afryki i Europa;
W rezultacie, przybliżenie w zarysie tej problematyki.

Depois de avaliar a evolução e a noção de "Geopolítica" e de justificar um conceito operacional, este texto analisa a relação entre a geopolítica e a (geo)estratégia, debatendo também qual destas disciplinas é mais ampla e se, porventura, alguma incorpora a outra.
After assessing the evolution and the notion of "Geopolitics" and justify an operational concept, this paper analyzes the relationship between geopolitics and (geo)strategy, also debating which of these is the broader term and if any incorporates another.

This presents an overview of the Indo-Pacific concept in the contemporary geopolitical discourse. It examines the genesis of the Indo-Pacific idea, its drivers, and the geopolitical interests, approaches and perspectives of some key actors like the ASEAN, Australia, China, the EU, Japan, and the US, with a specific focus on India. Based on current trends, it also presents a policy-relevant prognosis on the future relevance of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept, the emerging regional architecture, and the way forward to meet the objectives of the Indo-Pacific concept. (Detailed recommendations are being provided progressively, through periodic updates).

The current era is witnessing serious geopolitical changes during the Arab spring and its waves in the Arab countries specifically. This geopolitics change is reflecting serious geostrategic changes on the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) as well, which causes serious impacts on all OIC internally and externally. Under the forum theme “Unity in diversity: Source of power”, the paper introduces some crucial geostrategic concepts to develop common national and regional understanding in order to avoid geostrategic confrontation, and to exploit the strategic opportunities. The paper calls for geostrategic interests’ integration management, and for reaching the point of geostrategic equilibrium so as to start developing, what is called by the writer, geostrategic regional initiatives. This paper will propose crucial strategic imperatives within the context of the complex dynamic of the Arab spring’s transitional period and its impact on the region in order to support the unity of the OIC countries in this dilemma.

Il 28 settembre 1644 una squadra dei Cavalieri di Malta attacca la Carovana di Alessandria al largo dell’isola di Scarpanto, nel mar Egeo. I Cavalieri catturano numerosi prigionieri. Tra di essi, dame del seguito del sultano e un bambino principe del sangue. Durante il rientro, i Cavalieri sostano ripetutamente in territorio veneziano.
L’episodio non sarebbe significativo nel Mediterraneo di metà Seicento. Diventa, però, la scintilla che accende il conflitto, lungo oltre ventiquattro anni, noto come Guerra di Candia. Momento chiave della storia europea perché ridisegna gli equilibri mediterranei. La Dalmazia ne è uno dei centri di gravità.
Nel periodo 1644-49 sulla costa orientale adriatica accadono fatti fondamentali dal punto di vista geostrategico. Quanto accadde allora determina la sorte della regione fino a oggi. Qui emerge il genio di Lunardo Foscolo, il provveditore generale veneziano, che avrebbe potuto imprimere una svolta decisiva alla storia della repubblica Serenissima.
Questo libro racconta quei giorni e quegli eventi.

1644,September 28th, a team of the Knights of Malta attack the Caravan of Alexandria off the island of Scarpanto, in the Aegean Sea. The Knights capture numerous prisoners. Among them, ladies of the following of the sultan and a prince of blood. During the return, the Knights stop repeatedly in Venetian territory.
The episode would not be significant in the mid-seventeenth century Mediterranean. However, it becomes the spark that ignites the conflict, over twenty-four years long, known as the War of Candia. Key moment in European history because it redesigns the Mediterranean balance. Dalmatia is one of its centers of gravity.
In the period 1644-49 on the eastern Adriatic coast, fundamental geostrategic events occurred. What happened then determines the fate of the region to date. Here emerges the genius of Leonardo Foscolo, the Venetian poveditòr generàl, who could have given a decisive turning point to the history of the Serenissima republic.
This book tells about those days and those events.

A native of Bruges (now part of Belgium), Jacques de Coutre was a gem trader who spent nearly a decade in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. In addition to a substantial autobiography written in Spanish and preserved in the National Library of Spain in Madrid, he wrote a series of memorials to the united crown of Spain and Portugal that contain recommendations designed to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the Iberian powers in Southeast Asia, particularly against the backdrop of early Dutch political and commercial penetration into the region. Translated into English for the first time, these materials provide a valuable first-hand account of the bigger issues confronting the early colonial powers in Southeast Asia, and deep insights into the societies De Coutre encountered in the territory that today makes up Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Las guerras dácicas de Domiciano  y Trajano implicaron la desaparición violenta del Estado dacio, la civilización más importante después del propio Imperio romano y la segunda mayor potencia de la Europa del momento, consolidando a Roma como la gran superpotencia hegemónica del Continente y condicionando la política del Imperio y su situación en la región hasta la época de Marco Aurelio. A lo largo de estas páginas abordamos un análisis exhaustivo de este conflicto, sus antecedentes y sus consecuencias desde el punto de vista de la geopolítica y la estrategia de la contienda, aportando numerosas perspectivas innovadoras en torno a su auténtico alcance en la Europa Danubiana y del Este, y su impacto en el desarrollo de la historia de la región.

Çin’in 2013 senesinde ilan ettiği ve ‘asrın projesi’ olarak nitelediği ‘Kuşak ve Yol Projesi’, gerek ekonomik büyüklüğü gerekse de dünyanın her kıtasına yayılarak paydaş bulması nedeniyle uluslararası sistemin mevcut yapısını etkileyecek güce haiz görünmektedir. Söz konusu girişimin ekonomik, jeopolitik ve jeostratejik mantığının gereğince değerlendirilmesi, uluslararası sistemin gelecekteki görünüşünün doğru tasavvur edilebilmesi bakımından önemlidir. Bu çerçevede bu tezde, realist teorinin hâkim olduğu uluslararası ilişkiler paradigması döneminde geliştirilen güç geçişi teorisine bağlı olarak bilimsel yazında yer edinmiş temel varsayımları dikkate alarak ‘Kuşak ve Yol Projesi’nin, farklı aktörler üzerinde doğuracağı muhtemel etkilerin çözümlemesi ve bu konu hakkında Türkiye’ye katkı sağlayacak bazı önerilerde bulunulmaya çalışılmıştır. Çalışma çerçevesinde, Kuşak ve Yol Projesi’ni motive eden jeoekonomik mantığın ne olduğu ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Çin ile uluslararası sistemdeki hâkim güç Amerika arasındaki rekabetin tırmanarak ticaret savaşlarına ve ötesindeki çatışmalara evrilme ihtimali, Pekin’in büyük, orta ve küçük güçlerle ekonomi ve güvenlik alanlarında kurduğu ilişkilere yansımaktadır. Rusya, Almanya, İngiltere ve genel olarak Avrupa Birliği, uluslararası sistemin büyük güçleri ve büyük ittifakları sıfatıyla Çin projesinin önemli ortaklarıdır. Çin, bu önemli projeyi tasarlarken dış politikasını sistemdeki her büyük güç ile ortak paydalar üretmesine imkân verecek biçimde ayarlamaya çalışmıştır. Projenin yöneldiği coğrafyadaki önemli orta büyüklükteki güçler ise Türkiye, İran ve Türkistan bölgesinden Kazakistan ile küçük güç sıralamasından yükselen Özbekistan’dır. Çin, söz konusu orta büyüklükteki güçler ile de bölgesel ve ekonomik çıkarlara dayalı politikalar yürütmektedir. Bu çalışmada ortaya çıkan bu resme bağlı olarak, Türkler ile meskûn Türkistan bölgesinin, Pekin’in ve diğer batılı ve Asyalı aktörlerin Kuşak Yol Projesi’ndeki rolleri, etkinlikleri, kazanımları ve/veya projenin ilgili ülkelere maliyetleri kuramsal anlamda incelenmiştir.
The 'Belt and the Road Project', which China proclaimed in 2013 as 'the century project', seems to have a great influence on the current structure of the international system because of its economic size and its stakeholders spreading to every corner of the world. Appropriate evaluation of the economic, geopolitical and geostrategic function of the initiative is important in that the future appearance of the international system can be properly conceived. In this framework, it is aimed to analyze the 'Belt and Road Project' with possible effects on different actors, taking into account the basic assumptions of the literature on the theory of power transition developed during the period when realist theory is a dominant international relativistic paradigm. In the framework of the study, the geoeconomic logic motivating the Belt and Road Project was studied. The prospect that the competition between China and the dominant power in the international system will escalate into commercial wars and conflicts beyond it reflects the connections Beijing has with the large, medium and small powers in the economy and security areas. Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union in general are important partners of the Chinese project as the great powers and great alliances of the international system. While designing this important project, China has tried to adjust its foreign policy so that it can generate common stakes with every great power in the system. The power in the important mid-sized region where the project towards Turkey, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan rising from small power rankings from Iran and Turkestan. China, in turn, carries policies based on regional and economic interests with medium-sized forces. Our work emphasizes the importance of the Turks and the Turkestan settlement region in terms of the Belt and Road Project of Beijing.

У раду се разматра концепт хуманитарног интервенционизма у светлу постхладноратовских односа. Заузимам становиште да је хуманитарни интервенционизам само још једна од бројних репродукција оријентализма, која води дискурзивном креирању идентитетских Других, против којих се онда предузимају разни облици насиља. Концепт троугла насиља Јохана Галтунга, употребљава се као аналитички оквир, да би се показало како се различитим формама културног насиља, настоји легитимисати структурно и директно насиље над дехуманизованим Другим. Однос Запада према Србији и Србима 90-их, користи се као студија случаја кроз коју се показује, како су се стигматизацијом и медијском сатанизацијом (културно насиље), успеле оправдати санкције и међународна изолација (структурно насиље) и НАТО интервенција (директно насиље). На примеру НАТО интервенције у Савезној Републици Југославији, доказује се да мотиви ових интервенција нису хуманитарне, већ геостратешке природе.

In this article I scrutinise the concept of humanitarian interventionism in the light of post-cold war relations. I assume that the humanitarian interventionism is just one of the numerous reproductions of orientalism, that lead to a discursive creation of the identity Others, against whom various types of violence are used. The concept of the violence triangle of Johan Galtung is employed as an analytical framework to demonstrate how different forms of cultural violence are used to legitimize structural or direct violence against dehumanized Other. The relations of the West towards Serbia and the Serbs in the 1990s are utilized as a case study through which it is shown, how stigmatization and media satanization (cultural violence) managed to justify sanction and international isolation (structural violence) and NATO intervention (direct violence). The example of the NATO intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proves that the motives of these interventions are not of humanitarian, but of geostrategic nature.

Geographic space mediates political action and is transformed by it, and spatial forms are produced by governmental agencies that must respond or adapt to emerging patterns of political disruption and movements for social change. This course gives us tools to explain these social-spatial dynamics.

Students in Political Geography learn to think about the relationship between politics and space at multiple scales and in global context. We examine selected themes in the sub-discipline, develop a historical understanding of intellectual and social change in the sub-discipline, and develop a capacity to use key concepts for political-geographical research and writing. Students come to the course while working on both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The course has been customized to appropriately address all students who are eligible to register for it.

We begin the course by querying the practice of doing Political Geography, and we learn to recognize how norms of doing Political Geography have changed over time, even if some continuity (in concepts, methodology, and disciplinary identity, for example) extends over decades. In subsequent weeks, we attend above all to contemporary political-geographical approaches to key themes, including the state and state power, national identity and nationhood, forms of democracy and anti-democratic movements, geopolitics and international relations, political economy, and cultural politics. Through a mix of seminar-style discussion and lecture, as well as through the presentation of diverse texts for interpretation (films, fiction, examples of propaganda, and peer-reviewed scholarship in Political Geography and cognate disciplines), we develop shared understandings of key processes through which political geographies have been constructed.

After five decades of close alliance with Roman Power, in the
late 1st Century AD the Suebian Confederation split off and its eastern members, Quadi and Marcomanni, entered the way of direct conflict with Rome. Those events were an essential part of the violent geopolitical readjustment of the Danubian space which its main display were the Dacian Wars happened under the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, becoming an inflection point on the Foreign Affairs of the Roman Empire in Danube’s high course until the burst of the Marcomannic Wars more than half a century later. Throughout this article we are going to enter the causes of the Suebian Confederation breakup, the wars sustained
by Quadi and Marcomanni against Romans and their allies, as well as the role played by the Dacian Wars and its main actors in these conflagrations and their resolution.

The Second Dacian War implied the destruction of the Dacian State, the permanent occupation of most of its territory by Rome and the reinstatement and consolidation of Roman hegemony in the area until the end of the Second Century AD, setting a turning point in the historical development of Danubian and Eastern Europe. However, these results were possible only through a brief but merciless struggle, whose progress is studied here by means of an updated analysis of available sources and the conflict scenario, from the point of view of Strategy, Geopolitics and the opposing interests that led the region to suffer another bloody conflagration that changed forever the History of Continental Europe.

America currently faces serious dilemmas in its global policy and more specifically in the formulation of its foreign affairs strategy. These difficulties can be attributed primarily to the loss of international legitimacy. Consequently, America must retrieve international legitimacy, leadership and respect around the world by designing a coherent foreign policy strategy. Numerous scholars, engaged in a debate over the future of American foreign policy have advanced many suggestions of how to recover international legitimacy. However, there is no clear choice between them as many are incompatible and contradict one another. Therefore, none of the suggested theories is sufficiently persuasive. This thesis aims to scrutinise current American foreign policies and place them in a broader context of academic knowledge. The idea is to generate policy-oriented research, analysis and innovative problem solving that offers suggested ways in which America may restore international legitimacy. Using the method of analytical eclecticism this thesis is going to use three International Relations theories to ascertain whether President Obama has achieved foreign policy aims. Analytic eclecticism can help bridge the gulf between academic scholarship and the world of policy. Large events such as presidential elections in America require careful, rational choice analysis. The administration has promised radical changes in many areas of American foreign policy, but the implementation phase of policy making involved a loss of momentum, thus the promised change occurred through evolution. Three case studies demonstrate how insights from three International Relations theories can be brought together. The results of this thesis suggest that America’s main tool for restoring legitimacy was realist diplomacy based on the principle of consensual leadership. Such diplomacy required an individual to act as ‘a transformational leader’ offering decisive, principled direction in foreign affairs. President Obama’s rhetoric suggested that he acquired a strategic vision to activate the world’s leaders with the aim of an upgrade of civilization. An examination of diplomatic actions reveals that success was minimal at grand strategy levels since nobody has figured out yet creative responses to global challenges. Yet, it is a moral imperative that America should continue to be the preeminent world leader in solving international challenges such as climate change, nuclear nonproliferation and environmental degradation. Equally, one of the main findings of this thesis is based on a combination of both Realist and Constructivist insights. Constructivism has offered a challenge to Realism with its focus on security and balancing military power. If the nature of international political reality is socially constructed, human beings have in their power to construct a better world thanks to ideas, norms and discourse. If true, then Great Powers can avoid costly spirals of mistrust and rivalry when their leaders engage in honest, high-level diplomatic dialogue focused on effective renewal of the Earth. The ultimate survival of civilisation will depend on effective consensus-building measures among America, Russia and China as three Great Powers forming a trilateral and inclusive system of global power management. America's historical, global role as the champion of democracy and the ultimate objective of American foreign policy should be benign and visionary: "to shape a truly cooperative global community, in keeping with long-range trends and with the fundamental interests and needs of humankind." (Brzezinski, 1997: xiv). This thesis argues that American predominance so characteristic of the postwar order must give way to a more flexible, truly multilateral order which is more reflective of the reality of present times. Such an order could take seriously the sometimes differing perspectives of other major powers without succumbing to their revisionist desires. A more multilateral and shared order would simply be one in which decisionmaking in leading institutions is more evenly shared, new institutions reflecting the voice of rising powers could join established institutions to shape and together build the order. (Mazarr, 2018: 3) "Urgent challenges could be handled through multilateral processes where many states have a voice, and use of force to advance liberal values could be predicated on truly international endorsement.'' (Ibid.: 3). Given the fact that the present moment of relative global peace and stability may be short-lived, America has "an urgent need for engagement in the world that is deliberately focused on the enhancement of international geopolitical stability and that is simultaneously capable of reviving in the West a sense of historical optimism and in the East the sense of seeking compromise and capacity for dialogue. When the West and the East unite then there is a real chance for a real capacity to deal with internal and external geopolitical challenges. Only a united planet, multicultural one and moving beyond national or civilisational divisions can effectively solve these novel, global challenges effectively. As one professor noticed, "meeting these challenges is America's burden as well as its unique responsibility. Given the reality of American democracy, an effective response will require generating a public understanding of the continuing importance of American power in shaping a widening framework of stable geopolitical cooperation. (Brzezinski, 1997: 214). Cooperation which ultimate aim should be to avert and move beyond the global anarchy and also successfully defer the emergence of a power rival. (Ibid.: 214). These two goals "are inseparable from the longer-range definition of the purpose of America's global engagement, namely that of forging  an enduring framework of global geopolitical cooperation." (Ibid.). For that reason and given the above global goals, efforts of the President Obama's administration, who was positively inclined towards diplomacy, multilateral operations, and cooperation with allies and partners, especially regional powers in solving global challenges constitute actions oriented in the positive direction. President Obama's efforts in diplomacy were conducive to building and investing in a more flexible and geopolitically stable international order. Diplomacy has been traditionally preoccupied with advising, shaping and implementing foreign policy. But today, it is a far more complex, diverse and challenging process, which is subject to constant change. Ineffective methods of diplomacy are not enough in the present, interdependent world. Modern diplomatic practices, such as: negotiation, persuasion, agenda setting and coordination must be understood properly and applied adequately to achieve the best means for reaching goals. Modern, innovative diplomacy informed by science and exercised with prudence should be evolving into and ensuring the geopolitical core of shared responsibility for peaceful global management. (Brzezinski, 1997: 215). This thesis concludes that forward deployed, climate diplomacy could perform its classical function of contributing to global dialogue, peace and stability on Earth finally solving the problem of environmental change. Such diplomacy must rest on the will of the people, protect the most vulnerable, aim to work with allies and strengthen multilateral cooperation to preserve global public goods. The purpose of cooperation that diplomacy may enhance, principally, is to solve problems that require innovative, collective governance solutions. What is required is more imagination and quantum shift in thinking about global governance which could be defined as collective efforts to identify, understand and address global problems such as climate change that go beyond the capacities of individual states to solve. Intelligent, inclusive and tightened global governance will be based not just on institutional thickening of the current international order, but also on the quest for international legitimacy, fostering international resilience in the form of renovation of current institutions and adaptation to change so that to prevent costly crises whether financial or climatic from loosening the bond existing among members of the international community. What may emerge is an informal global community that is inherently congenial to more institutionalized and inclusive global cooperation. In the course of the next several decades, a functioning expression of such a structure of global cooperation, based on geopolitical dialogue, compromise and realities, could thus emerge and gradually assume the mantle of the world's current regent, which has in the meantime assumed the burden of responsibility for world stability and peace." (Brzezinski, 1997: 215). Principled diplomacy is a step in the direction of geostrategic success and may serve as a sine qua non condition for successful foreign policy.

Most of you will have heard that Singapore is  a prosperous city state that sports a famous port and an equally famous airport. Some of you may have even been through Singapore your way to somewhere else. For those who come to the city as tourists, they are likely to check out the famous Raffles Hotel. Here at one of Asia’s finest addresses you will learn that the hotel has been named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, an agent of the East India Company in London, who founded the British trading post and settlement in 1819. Before Raffles arrived, it is said, there was nothing much on the island except a handful of fishermen and pirates. Singapore was a place forgotten by time.
My paper seriously challenges this view. If you attend my lecture, I want you to walk away knowing that Singapore has a longer and deeper history that predates 1819. Raffles did not discover either the location Singapore or its potential as a trading emporium: that had been recognized long before. As a second takeaway I want viewers to appreciate that Singapore was everything but a forgotten place before 1819 and that it fulfilled different functions at different times. So come along and learn more!

RGS posted a video teaser of this talk at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52sZJzjyDY

A geopolitical issue of South-East Europe became of very importance for the scholars, policymakers, and researchers with the question of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire as one of the most crucial features of the beginning of the 20th century in European history. A graduate collapsing of the one-time great empire was accelerated and followed by competition and struggling by both, the European Great Powers and the Balkan national states, upon the territorial inheritance of it. While the European Great Powers have the aim to obtain the new spheres of political-economic influence in South-East Europe, followed by the task to establish a new balance of power in the continent, a total collapse of the Ottoman state was seen by small Balkan nations as the unique historical opportunity to enlarge the territories of their national-states by unification of all ethnolinguistic compatriots from the Ottoman Empire with the motherland. A creation of a single national state, composed by all ethnographic and historic “national” lands, was in the eyes of the leading Balkan politicians as a final stage of national awakening, revival and liberation of their nations which started at the turn of the 19th century on the ideological basis of the German romanticist nationalism expressed in a formula: “One Language-One Nation-One State”.

On 14 April 2021, US President Joe Biden announced that, starting on 1 May
(2021), US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan, ending 20 years of war on
Taliban terrorism. At a first glance, the Americans’ decision seems to be a hasty
withdrawal from a very costly war of attrition. On closer inspection, however,
the events in Afghanistan seem to part of a realpolitik strategy, which seeks
to reset the geopolitical game in Eurasia and beyond. So, what could be the
potential geopolitical impact of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan? How
could the regional game be reset after August 2021? This article, written
immediately after the “fall” of Kabul on 15 August 2021, and the return to
power of the Taliban in Afghanistan, proposes three scenarios for regional
geopolitical dynamics and their global implications.
Keywords: Afghanistan; Pashtuns; Taliban; “World Balkans”; Realpolitik;

The intent of this chapter is to re-imagine and apply the term " civil disobedience " to the cyber domain. The full extent of how it can apply will be analyzed in a framework of the evolutionary rights of protest. Traditional civil disobedience is a " performance " via visual and physical mediums, while cyber disobedience is essentially a digital performance with difficulty in attributing true ownership of the act. This is an interesting antithesis to the physical protestor, who uses strategic visibility, threat of arrest, and popular backlash against state behavior as vital aspects of the disobedience. These variables are noticeably absent in cyber disobedience.

4th International Conference on the Roman Danubian Provinces - Traian and the Danubian Provinces. The political, economic and religious life in the Danubian Provinces. Zagreb, 15-17/XI/2017: Several high-ranking members in Trajan’s general staff were decorated with coronae classicae during the Dacian Wars of 101 – 106 AD. These decorations used to be granted to consular ranking officers for naval military victories over enemy navies. In this context: how and where could naval battles have taken place in a conflict like Trajan’s Dacian Wars?
The conflict scenario, criss-crossed by the Danube and its huge tributary rivers and flanked by the Black Sea Western Coast, proves the vital importance that taking control of fluvial and sea spaces would have had for any army who intended to launch an offensive to or from Roman territory in the early 2nd Century AD.
Furthermore, we should keep in mind the climatic, logistic and purely practical contingencies that prevented Barbarians and Romans from crossing a river like the Danube, usually frozen in the harshest part of winter, with a big army. The unavoidable struggle between Dacians, Romans and their respective allies for the strategic control of the Danube, its tributaries and the Black Sea Western Shore made naval battles between enemy navies inevitable.

Este artigo procura explicar a estratégia geopolítica brasileira para o Atlântico Sul, desde 2000. Para isso, apresentam-se os contornos gerais da inserção internacional brasileira e das relações bilaterais e multilaterais do Brasil com países sul-atlânticos e potências extrarregionais. Também se trabalha com as políticas domésticas. Conclui-se que a estratégia brasileira é de caráter defensivo, visando
à proteção de sua soberania e integridade territorial.

This paper sought to explain the Brazilian geopolitical strategy for the South Atlantic since 2000. For this purpose, the general outlines of Brazil’s international insertion and Brazilian bilateral and multilateral relations with South Atlantic countries and extra-regional powers were presented. Domestic policies were also taken into consideration. In conclusion, the Brazilian strategy is defensive, aiming to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity