Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne, 2021, nr 2
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Item Adequate Interpretation of Socio-Political Values as a Conceptual Issue in the XXI Century (From the Perspective of the Concepts Used by B. Constant and A. Tocqueville)(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Puchnina, OlgaThe article analyzes the transformation of concepts like liberty, equality, and democracy depending on the political, historical, and socio-cultural context. The author proposes to trace the significant difference in understanding “universal” socio-politi¬cal values by using the classical liberal theories of B. Constant and A. de Tocqueville compared to modern international political processes. The author uses comparative and historical analysis methods, and a cultural and axiological approach to studying the ideology and politics. The argument is that the ancient understanding of liberty was irrelevant for the society of the XIX century, just as B. Constant’s classical understand¬ing of liberty no longer meets the changing socio-political needs of people living in the XXI century. It does not consider a fundamentally new sphere of human activity like freedom and privacy in the digital world. Recognizing the value of democracy, the au¬thor observes that today, A. de Tocqueville’s approach is more than adequate for under¬standing political processes. For example, the post-election information warfare in the United States in 2020 shows the relevance of the specific understanding of Tocqueville’s democracy as a profound process of total equality spread. The main conclusion is that the political values familiar to modern discourse often are interpreted inadequately to reality since scientific understanding is rigid and lags behind the rapid development of information technologies, globalization, and virtualization.Item Settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict on the Donbas in the Focus of the Problem of War and Peace(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Perepelytsia, HryhoriiThe purpose of this article is to understand how the blurry nature of hybrid warfare and hybrid peace influences the assessment of national security and the making of adequate foreign and security policy decisions, including, in particular, the prediction of the further course and resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which is not only a threat to Ukraine’s existence but also to European security in general. In order to properly study this issue, the Russo-Ukrainian war on the Donbas was selected as an object. As the main method of the research of this problem was chosen the conflict analysis. The conclusions drawn from this analysis prompt us to differentiate the concepts of war, peace, and conflict and bring our perceptions of them to reality. When the idea of internal conflict replaces the real war, their sophisticated substitution will leave the problem of settlement of the conflict on the Donbas not solved, and the war between Ukraine and Russia is not completed. Achieving peace by “settlement the conflict on the Donbas” within the framework of a real war of Russia against Ukraine will not lead to its end and sustainable peace. In such a situation, only a temporary “cold peace” is possible. The implementation of the strategy of Ukraine and the international community should begin with the rejection of the “plot for settlement the internal conflict on the Donbas” and the recognition of the reality of the war, in which the belligerent and aggressor is Russia, but not Phantoms DPR/LPR. The study’s objectives are based on identifying epistemological reasons that make it impossible to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donbas and clarify their national and international security consequences. The study results are based on an analysis of the course of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the process of settling the conflict in Donbas. The article analyzes the mechanism of interaction between hybrid war and hybrid peace in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donbas, clarifies the essence of war and peace under existing realities, and identifies epistemological reasons that make it impossible to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donbas. The article also analyses the real and probable national and international consequences of the unresolved problem of war and peace in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on Donbas. The article concludes with a proposal for a possible solution to war and peace on Donbas. Recommendations for resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donbas are based on Ukraine and the international community’s rejection of the “plot for settlement the internal conflict in Donbas” and recognition of the reality of a war in which the warring party and the aggressor are Russia, but not the phantom DNR/LNR. According to these recommendations, military force should become the main instrument for coercion of Russia for forcing peace and ending the war on acceptable terms for Ukraine. Ukrainian diplomacy must act under the task of war, but not only so much for the sake of “settlement internal conflict on the Donbas.”Item Use of Russia's Information and Communication Technologies in Political Instrumentalization of Ukraine's History(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Danylenko, Serhiy; Shcherbatiuk, OlenaThe political instrumentalization of the history of Ukraine carried out by the Russian Federation in the framework of the information war against Ukraine is covered in this article. This instrumentalization is exercised through media communication employing historical and political myths and narratives to vindicate Russia’s aggressive actions. The latest information and communication technologies used by the Kremlin in the information war against Ukraine have been identified in this paper. Such destructive efforts often derail Ukrainian-Polish relations, which are particularly sensitive to historical and political issues. The reasons for the drawbacks of the Ukrainian authorities in counteracting the information aggression on the part of the Russian Federation are distinguished, and the measures that would contribute to an effective response to such aggression are outlined.Item The Connotation, Features, and Mechanism of Computational Propaganda(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Yang, JinThe purpose of the work is to identify the connotation, features of computational propaganda and reveal how computational propaganda uses new technologies to manipulate public opinion. The study’s hypothesis is the assumption that computational propaganda, as a new type of propaganda and manipulation of public opinion spawned in the era of artificial intelligence, stealthily and massively steers public opinion using new technologies to influence political and social processes. With the scientific methods such as event analysis and case-study, the work concludes that more and more governments, political parties, and strategic communication companies use social media as the digital platform, Internet bots as the automated executors, and algorithms as the computational technical guarantee, by participating in, guiding and creating controversial topics and events, to manipulate public opinion and win international competitions, policy debates, elections, etc.Item Institutional Support of Euroregions "Carpathian" and "Bug": A Case Study for Ukrainian-Polish Cross-Border Cooperation(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Shuliak, Antonina; Shuliak, NazariiThis paper presents cooperation across boundaries as co-operative measures, being goal-oriented to the economic, social, scientific, technical, environmental, cultural, and other relations, initiating and deepening among territorial communities, local authorities both in Ukraine and in Poland. The methodological basis of the study consists of the following approaches to the study of Euroregions: geographical, political, administrative, functional. Definitions of the Euroregion as the main form of cross-border cooperation have been determined, and institutions promoting cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Poland have been studied. The institutional support for cross-border cooperation within the framework of the “Carpathian” and “Bug” Euroregions has been examined. Features of the Ukrainian-Polish Euroregions – “Carpathian” and “Bug” have been characterized. Problematic issues concerning the Euroregion cross-border cooperation support have been identified. Moreover, recommendations on improving the institutional component of the Ukrainian-Polish CBC within the “Carpathian” and the “Bug” Euroregions are given herein.Item Positioning and Rebranding as a State Security Tools in Global Space(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Ishchenko, Ihor; Bashkeieva, OlenaThe purpose of this article is to explore positioning and rebranding as tools for state security in global space, using the methodology of constructivism in international relations. The author hypothesizes that positioning the country as safe will be attractive only if there is a unifying factor based on the principles of consocial democracy. To achieve this purpose, the authors used several scientific approaches and methods: constructivism as a scientific paradigm; dialectical method; content analysis, and comparison. The article covers the following issues: Positioning and rebranding in modern conditions; Level of branding effectiveness in Ukraine; National identity as the basis for rebranding and state security; Rebranding states in the face of new challenges and threats. The essence of the conclusions is as follows: States will choose a partner for economic cooperation under difficult conditions in terms of political risks, benefits, and costs. This trend is about renewed positioning and rebranding to facilitate decisions on cooperation. The effectiveness of the existing state brand depends not only on creating an attractive external picture of the country’s positioning. Without a genuine alignment of the declared brand with the internal situation of the state, the political system as a whole, the congruent of the mental construct of the main political structures and the social environment, the brand will not be attractive to investors and the country will remain in an unstable environment.Item Defining "Information Resources" and Their Interpretation in the Domain of Ukrainian National Police(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Mykievych, Mykhailo; Senyk, Sviatoslav; Krayevska, OksanaThe article focuses on studying the definitions of “information technologies” and aims to elaborate on the proposal concerning its legislative consolidation. The analysis of actual regulations in Ukraine, which determine the public relations in the sphere of information, as well as the state of research on this problem by other scholars, have shown the following: (1) currently, there is no unambiguous interpretation of this definition at the legislative level, which creates the preconditions for ambiguous interpretation and practical application of this concept in the legal field; (2) for several reasons, there exists a noticeable lack of a unanimous approach to unifying the definitions of “information resources.” This study offers to rely on an approach according to which the definition of “information resources” is considered in the context of a particular area of social activities. Based on this approach, it is offered to amend the basic normative legal document that defines public relations in the information sphere in Ukraine, i.e., the Law of Ukraine “On Information,” as well as the main legal instrument that regulates information activities in the National Police of Ukraine, that is the Law of Ukraine “On the National Police.”Item Challenges and Threats to the Debt Security of Central and Eastern European Countries(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Chentukov, Yurii; Marena, Tetyana; Zakharova, OlhaThe study aims to identify the debt security weaknesses in the CEE countries and determine challenges and threats to the debt security of national economies and the CEE region. To achieve this goal, general and specific research methods have been used, including historical and logical methods, analysis and synthesis, structural and functional analysis, generalization and abstraction, a systematic approach, classification, and statistical methods. It is found out that the situation with debt security in the CEE region is quite controversial. The average external debt indicators of the CEE countries are in the unsafe zone, while the average solvency is at a relatively safe level. The analysis of external indebtedness and solvency indicators shows that the CEE group is highly heterogeneous regarding the level of countries’ debt security. Despite some improvement in the debt security of CEE economies during 2017–2019, the prospects for the development of the debt situation are rather vague. It is due to the growing impact of external challenges and threats to the debt security of the region, including the deterioration of the global economic environment and global recession, increase in credit risks and contraction in the international lending, global economic and political imbalances, and policy divergence, growing government spending on solving problems caused by the COVID-19 and corresponding pressure on public budgets, the general growth of global debt. Given the high heterogeneity of CEE countries in terms of current debt security, the manifestation of global challenges in each national economy can be rather diverse.Item Magdalena Musiał-Karg, Elektroniczne głosowanie w opiniach Polaków. Postawy i poglądy na temat e-voting, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Poznań 2020, ss. 253.(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, 2021) Malužinas, Martinas; Górny, Maciej