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During the last years a wave of migrations from the Middle-East, North and sub-Saharan Africa in the direction of Europe, especially countries of the European Union, is evident. In 2015, this process had a particularly massive pressure of migrants from the south-east direction, especially through the Balkans to Central and Western Europe, especially to Germany. In this paper is analyzed the process of migration of the population of the Middle-East, North and Sub- Saharan Africa to Europe in the last years, caused largely by conflicts and riots in these parts of the world, as well as by poverty. It also analyzes the geopolitical dimensions of migrations from these areas, especially from war-torn Syria to the EU and Europe. So far, the European Union was facing a great challenge and disunity of its members considering this issue, which further expands the multidimensional crisis of the Union that is already in progress.

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The refugee crisis erupted in the European Union in the summer of 2015. The problem divided the EU member states into two main groups – West (Old Member States) and East (New Member States). They had different opinions about the migration flows. The governments of the Old Members (led by Germany and France) saw the flow as a forced migration process and people who arrive through Greece islands as refugees escaping the war. The Visegrad group saw it as an illegal immigration problem. Some of their leaders blame Turkey for organizing and directing migrants toward Europe.

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At the beginning of XXI century, the European Union has been hit by several successive crises. It was the world financial crisis of 2007 whose source was in the financial market of the United States, the debt crisis in Greece, which lasts from 2009 and has escalated in the summer of 2015, as well the refugee crisis resulting from the war in Syria during 2015. In connection with previously stated, it should be noted that in Germany in 2015 entered a million and one hundred thousand refugees, of whom about 60 percent are not persons threatened by war. The aforementioned events have pointed out that the unfinished European sovereignty caused by delays in the construction of a European federal state actually allows the European Union to function in somewhat normal circumstances, but it prevents her from having an adequate response to emergencies. Because of her interstate and confederal features, the European Union cannot give the unique, fast and appropriate response to the challenges of the globalized world. The absence of rounded territory and European federal government with ministries of interior and defense makes the European Union inefficient in dealing with migration and security challenges.

Abstract ▼

At the beginning of the 21st century, terrorism has become a major security threat to the modern world. As the international community faces a number of threats and challenges, terrorist groups continue to spread fear by improving their operating methods. Cyber terrorism is a form of terrorism and potentially the method that terrorists could use in their fight. It is an illegal act in which the weapons implemented, in order to endanger human life and national infrastructure, are computers and the Internet. Attacks on computer systems and networks that can cause disruption or interruption of work, loss of lives or injury to people, physical destruction, as well as financial and ecological consequences are the acts of cyber terrorism. The terrorists of the Islamic State parallel with the physical conquered also cyberspace, especially in a way of extensive use of social networks for the propaganda purpose. This paper presents the authors\' attempt to distinguish differences between the acts of cyber terrorism from simple terrorist activities on the Internet such are spreading propaganda and also to analyze the activities of members of the Islamic State in cyberspace.

Abstract ▼

The upcoming decades intend to change the world in terms of communication, transport, energy, demographic structure, migration, regional relations, etc. The European Union will be faced with many challenges in upcoming decades- primarily with the reduction of the number of young people and fast growth of the elderly population. That can result in a reduction in the rate of social growth from 2025. Possible solutions and prevention of future problems are the subjects of EU \"Lisbon Strategy\", the \"Europe 2020\" and the study “Europe 2050”. Future EU challenges might have a major impact on the countries of the Western Balkans. The program “South East Europe 2020- Employment and prosperity in European perspective” (based on the Strategy “Europe 2020”) aims to prevent possible negative trends which can affect SEE region and complicate its path towards the EU membership.

Abstract ▼

From the positive legal standpoint, the evaluation of direct democracy application at the national level in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BaH) is quite puzzling. This is because the legal basis for the referendum decision-making at the state level has not been determined in positive regulations. Also, for several reasons, this issue performs as a bitter substance within forced and barely shaped constitutional system of BaH. Eo ipso, along different understandings of the issue, the analysis of this topic is discrete and influenced by the legal inventiveness that flirts with the political patronage of different bases. In this regard, this paper focuses on an objective legal analysis of the possibilities for the referendum decision-making at the state level in BaH.

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The intricate relations among countries nowadays cannot be grasped without including a general concept of security. In this context, the term ‘security’ acquires multiple meanings: it involves, among other things, the social aspect of contemporary relations. This paper considers the social aspect of security in Latin American countries. National integration process in the countries after the Cold War provided the basis for the sub-regional integration process. There has been obvious progress in the processes when Latin American countries decided to make social security an integral part of both processes. The modern development of social security at the turn of 21st century unfolds simultaneously in all these countries, which makes their mutual relations more complex. On the other hand, the economic and political crisis in Venezuela poses a challenge to the process of regional integration in the South American countries to withstand the crisis. From the Venezuela’s crisis and the regional integration process in South America, Serbia should draw lessons on how to become part of the European integration process.

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The European External Action Service (EEAS) can articulate EU global positions more clearly. The discrepancy between an institutional contribution in policy creation and its insufficiently regulated status undermines the EEAS autonomy, as a result of the Lisbon Treaty and interventions by other institutions. Besides the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), EEAS activities are bound by the intergovernmental decision-making in other segments of external relations. Divergent interests and unfavorable institutional legacy have their outcome in overlapping and non-conferral of tasks in the domain of foreign relations. It is necessary to research the challenges which hinder full operationality of EEAS and analyse its development through institutional argumentation. Conceived as an auxiliary body, EEAS has nonetheless started to affect the institutional context, which raises the issue of its institutional identity. EEAS can contribute to CFSP by facilitating the process of reaching common positions, and by assuming additional competences at a later stage. With less resistance and more efficient reaching of common positions, conditions would be met to improve performances of EEAS in the domain of coordination, and its institutional positioning would be facilitated.

Abstract ▼

The end of the Cold War and the beginning of the transition process has forced many countries to find a new form of regulation of its economic system. Some countries have decided to join forces and form a regional initiative to help achieve common goals. This is an example with the Visegrad group, which consists of the former Eastern Bloc countries Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Immediately after the start of the transition process, all these countries defined their economic, political and foreign policy goals. Given the almost identical recent history and defined goals, officials of these countries have decided to join their efforts in order to achieve its plans. The result was the formation of the Visegrad Group, which, in addition to the political and foreign policy character, has an economic character in terms of economic convergence and economic entities of the Member States. The main economic objective of this initiative is an attempt to preserve as much as possible and strengthen the economies of its member states to individually or collectively could compete with Western European business entities. This is the key element that influences on the preservation of the stability of markets and financial systems of the Visegrad Group Member States.

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This paper uses historical genesis of the free zones to make a comparative analysis of the ways and the levels of their use by the leading global powers China and America, in order to point out the potential that various categories of free zones offer by being implemented as a geoeconomical, and by extension as a geopolitical strategy. The quality of economic statecraft used by the leading world powers on one side and their balancing act between the profit and morals on the other, define by large not just the global position of their respective states, but the destiny of the world as well.

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During the second half of the twentieth century, India and China were more rivals rather than partners. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the situation has radically changed so that these two countries were more economic and political partners rather than rivals in any field. India and China projected their relations in order to live as good neighbors and partners in the future. Relations between these two countries cause the global attention. There is an ongoing steady redistribution of global economic and political power from the global West to the global East, where the main roles have precisely these two Asian giants. It is about two separate civilizations with a long history, and undoubted ambition to become the indispensable actors in global politics. In the process, the two countries cooperate more and confront less, as it was in the past.