In 2021, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) turned 20 years old. With “Shanghai Spirit” as its guiding principle, the scope of SCO’s activity has significantly expanded, recently adding India and Pakistan to its members. As a result, SCO policy has heavily influenced the Central Asia region. In response, in 2019, the EU launched a new strategy for Central Asia, adopting “connectivity” as its core concept. As a result, both SCO and EU strategies in Central Asia tend to conflict with each other, thus leading to uneven and inconsistent development of the region. Therefore, this paper aims to identify contradictions between SCO’s “Shanghai Spirit” guiding principle and the EU’s concept of “connectivity” by comparing the SCO and EU strategies toward Central Asia. The methodology in the paper involves a qualitative comparative method, including two qualitative case studies, represented by the SCO’s “Shanghai Spirit” and the EU’s concept of “connectivity” in their strategies on Central Asia. The article concludes that contestation between the SCO and the EU policies in Central Asia impedes stable development of the region, and therefore, a compromise between both policies in Central Asia is suggested.
Nowadays, space management is widely recognized as an important area of global governance. The management of outer space is very complex, therefore activities of states in outer space realm are regulated by Outer Space Treaty. However, due to a number of ambiguities in the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty regarding the military use of space, loopholes for an increase in militarization and weaponization of space have emerged, thus causing serious problems with space security and affecting the sustainable use of space. Such shortcomings in the regulation of the military use of outer space by the Outer Space Treaty, including the lack of definition of certain terms and the establishment of appropriate procedures, allow the parties to freely interpret the relevant terms, and also conduct experiments in space, which contribute to the militarization and weaponization of space. Naturally this issue poses global security threat, because once the militarization or weaponization of outer space has started, it is almost impossible to reverse this process. In addition, the development of anti-satellite weapons and the dual purpose of satellites orbiting the Earth undoubtedly adds to the political and legal challenge of managing outer space. Therefore, this articles claims, that the legal regulation of outer space requires thorough revision in order to effectively address the issue of legal mechanisms in outer space.
Since the declaration of independence, Ukraine has been involved in a rapid pace of events, aimed at building statehood and understanding the direction of the political course. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand why, despite a series of revolutions, Russian aggression and numerous difficult steps to democratize the country through decentralization and territorial development, Ukraine has not yet formed a clear political course and ensured the stability of key state institutions, such as judicial, police and taxation systems. Such questions arise quite often and probably do not have an unambiguous answer. This article is devoted to those aspects of the Ukrainian mentality that have caused the current political situation in the state. The article reveals why, despite a series of revolutions, Russian aggression and a number of important steps to democratize countries through decentralization and territorial development, Ukraine does not form a clear political course and does not ensure the stability of key state institutions, such as the judicial, police and tax systems. The article utilizes the method of analysis, which is based on the comparison of historical events and their reflection in modern conditions. In addition to the aforementioned, the method of induction is introduced, which provides possibility of identifying a pattern in the presence of a limited amount of observations of recurring historical events. The article contains sections that consistently consider the historical facts, that have influenced the formation of the mentality of Ukraine, which has a significant impact on the formation of society and the choice of the leader, elected by the society. The article seeks to reveal the causes of certain political events in Ukraine from the influence of the Ukrainian mentality on them and to consider those aspects of it that hinder or help Ukrainians in the difficult process of state building. The purpose of the article is to determine the factors shaping the Ukrainian mentality that have an impact on the political processes that have been taking place for decades in Ukraine. The article does not criticize or accept the Ukrainian mentality, but on the contrary, reveals its historical stages of formation and influence on political processes in Ukraine in order to analyze, understand and predict them.
The article overviews approaches to the diversification of gas supplies in the framework of the Three Seas Initiative. The modern geopolitical situation in Eastern and Central Europe is characterized by transformation processes in the energy sector. Due to the implementation of decarbonization policy in the European Union and subsequent shift from coal as a main energy source, a need in alternative fuel sources, such as natural gas, emerges. Therefore, a significant increase in natural gas consumption is expected, which raises a number of issues, such as dependence on a single gas supplier and orientation of the EU’s gas transmission system in East-West direction only. This issue is crucial for Eastern and Central European states, due to the underdeveloped gas infrastructure in the region and heavy dependence on a single gas supplier, such as Russia or Turkey. Hence, the Three Seas Initiative is considered as a powerful tool, designed to develop energy, transport and digital infrastructure of the region in the North-South direction, where one of the most potentially promising projects within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative is represented by the development of gas infrastructure, aimed at solving the diversification of supplies in the gas market in Eastern and Central Europe. The implementation of developed gas infrastructure and diversification of gas supplies consists of several regional projects that are relevant for those countries in the region in which they are implemented in particular and for all member states of the Three Seas Initiative in general. The main purpose of the implementation of these projects is the creation of a unified natural gas transportation infrastructure in Eastern Europe along the North-South axis. The result of such a grand reorganization in the field of gas supplies to Europe will be an increase in the number of independent suppliers in the European gas market and a decrease in the dependence of the EU countries on gas supplies from Russia. In the article, the author traced in detail the tendency of the formation of energy infrastructure along the North-South axis with focus on the projects that are being implemented by each of the participating countries within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative. This approach allows to assess the scale and integrity of the gas transportation infrastructure, that is being created in the Eastern Europe region and its contribution to the common European energy security policy.
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