TURKEY'S MEDIUM AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: TR 2007/15 - TR 2017/9 by Orhan Güvenen

In the last decade of the twentieth century, we have experienced a rapid process of change in political, economic and social structures throughout the world through globalisation and interaction between countries and technologies. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Eastern Bloc and the bipolar system that emerged after the Second World War, during the re-determination of military and political balances in the international system, pluralist participatory democracy, respect for human rights, awareness that human responsibility complements human rights, a liberal market economy, national and international transparency and ethics have become the basic universal norms of the new structures....

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF DEMOCRACY IN MULTIETHNIC SOCIETIES
by Ljubomir D. Frckoski

In my opinion, a brief theoretical introduction is necessary for the purpose of defining the apparatus of categories that will be used for analysis of the situation of inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia, as well as for locating Macedonia in the wider discourse of democracies in transition.
Societies where democracy is in transition present, by definition, a difficult problem in terms of conceptual determination and of scrupulous analysis....

BALKAN AND CYPRIOT TEACHINGS by Hugo Gobbi

Recent events should lead us to draw important conclusions about bi-ethnic or bi-cultural conflicts.
We all feel attacked by violations of human rights; we all understand the need to improve conventions to protect the rights of minorities, but most of us reject the methods used in the Kosovo case.
First, the pretension of replacing international law by an order based on legitimacy or morality is simply a megalomaniacal pretension that is characteristic of a policy of power....

THE ORGANISATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE IN THE EUROPEAN SECURITY ARCHITECTURE OF THE EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Marton Krasznai

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has a relatively short history. The first decisions aimed at turning it into a 'regular' international organisation from a series of conferences were taken at the end of the Cold War in 1990 in Paris, where, among other things, the Charter of Paris was adopted. Subsequent decisions establishing the Secretariat, the institutions and changing its name from Conference to Organisation were steps on the road to maturity.....

RUSSIAN NATIONAL INTERESTS AND THE CASPIAN SEA by Timothy L. Thomas & John Shull

The Caspian Sea, located on Iran's northern border, surrounded by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and sharing a border with the south-west corner of Russian territory, is the epicentre of a collision of regional, national and business issues. These include questions among the littoral countries over demarcating the Sea, route diversification for oil pipelines, state interests, investor concern over political and ethnic stability, and the role of international agreements......

AZERBAIJAN'S GEOPOLITICS AND OIL PIPELINE ISSUE by Nasib Nass

Most of what Azerbaijan has gone through is explained by its geographical location. The weakness of Azerbaijan's natural defences has repeatedly left it open to external aggression. This feature means that Azerbaijan has played the role of a convenient corridor for foreign states' attacks from north to south and vice versa, as well as for expansionist goals of mighty forces. Historically, there has been no place for the weak structures in the region, but at the same time, there has been no durable stability or opportunity for evolutionary development......

REFLECTIONS ON SERBIAN NATIONALISM AND THE POLICY OF ETHNIC CLEANSING by Enver Hasani

Is ethnic cleansing, this old phenomenon with a new name, a typical Balkan creature? What about the Serbs? Are they destined by nature to lead a forceful removal of non-Serbs from disputed lands, a phenomenon that they themselves named 'ethnic cleansing' more than hundred years ago?
To be clear from the outset, we consider that the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing of the non-Serbs in the Balkans and the destruction of their cultures cannot be explained anthropologically but rather by socio-political arguments: .......

CHALLENGES TO UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA   by Emel Osmançavusoglu

Since its inception in 1945, the United Nations (UN) has undertaken responsibility for maintaining world peace and security. Drafters of the UN Charter envisioned an organisation engaged in the entire spectrum of conflict management and resolution, from preventive measures, to ad hoc responses to crisis, to the long-term stabilisation of conflict areas. The UN's responses to conflict are often grouped into the three stages of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building......

ORTHODOXY AND THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE CHURCH IN RUSSIAN POLITICS by C. Cem Oguz

Despite her heavy political agenda, Madeleine Albright's first stop after arriving at Vnukovo Airport from London in February 1997 was the Danilovsky Monastery, where she had a brief meeting with Patriarch Aleksiy II of the Russian Orthodox Church.1 Albright's visit to the Russian Patriarch was unusual for a political trip, but diplomats noted that it was not surprising since the Orthodox Church has become an increasingly influential social force in Russia since the collapse of communism......

BOOK REVIEW

ARABS AND YOUNG TURKS: OTTOMANISM, ARABISM AND ISLAMISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1908-1918 by Hasan Kayali, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1997, pp. 291.

Yücel Güçlü
This monograph is a timely addition to scholarly research on a topic of great concern and fascination. Indeed, in the light of the recent explosion of interest in the Ottoman Empire, the study will constitute an invaluable source book...... 

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA by Nicolas K. Laos

Dr Nicolas K. Laos is currently a research associate at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Director of the Pro-Europa League of Journalists and Scholars and a financial advisor.
The turmoil associated with the emergence of the New World Order is, to a large extent, the result of the interaction of at least three types of states which call themselves nations but share few of the historic attributes of the nation state. First, there are ethnic splinters from disintegrating empires (e.g. the states that emerged from the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union). Historic grievances obsess them, they often adopt a policy of nation-state building ignoring the goal of international order and their foreign policies are highly volatile since they have no experience or diplomatic tradition to rely on. These states need to be socialised1 into the international system.