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The fact that war is prohibited by international law does not mean that a violation of that prohibition cannot occur. After all, this is evidenced by the practice of international relations after the end of the Cold War, when force was applied randomly, without a valid legal basis, leading to serious political crises and confrontations, causing real humanitarian disasters. Even the latest use of armed force in Ukraine is not without the aforementioned consequences. On the Russian side, the use of armed force in Ukraine, called a “special military operation”, is justified by the exercise of the right to selfdefense in order to prevent a threat that is certain and that comes due to the expansion of NATO to the East, but beyond the borders of Russian state territory. On the Ukrainian side, the use of armed force is considered legitimate self-defense against Russian aggression against its independence and territorial integrity. Since both states call for the lawful use of force by exercising the right to self-defense, the analysis is based on the thesis that the background of this conflict is the competition between the great powers – the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (Russia) – for expansion, i.e. by retaining spheres of influence. The conflict in Ukraine therefore has much deeper roots stemming from the Cold War and the process of disintegration of the Soviet Union (USSR), which seriously disrupted the balance of power in the world. The imbalance has led to global political division and polarization based on competing Eurasian and EuroAtlantic geopolitical strategies. The political redistribution of the world is also present in the armed conflict in Ukraine, which, according to the author, seriously undermines the current collective security system of the United Nations, whose fundamental value is the maintenance of international peace.

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In the present article is analyzed the prevention of serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly in view of the gravity of certain acts, qualified as core crimes (the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression). In order to achieve the aforementioned, the paper provides scientific examination of the norms that regulate these international crimes in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Geneva Conventions and other important treaty-based sources of the international criminal law. Therefore, the starting point is that the core crimes are deemed to be the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The aim of the article is also to analyze the absence of a treaty that prohibits nuclear and depleted uranium weapons, especially considering court practice. It is confirmed that international humanitarian law prohibits engagement in military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury. The results of the research show that the rule prohibiting the use of weapons causing superfluous injury is a customary norm applicable to all parties to any armed conflict. The author also presents the development, challenges and perspectives of the international criminal law, in the widely accepted historical narrative.

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This paper investigates the effects of Sweden’s nuclear weapons program in its historical global positioning. Author analyzes the causes and scope of the launched nuclear weapons program, looking at the perspective of the continuity of Swedish neutrality and military non-alignment, until the country’s latest decision to join NATO. By shutting down the nuclear program, Sweden marked the path of the main promoter of global disarmament and the initiator for the elimination of all nuclear arsenals. The main hypothesis that is being proven reads: By joining NATO, Sweden would not only abandon the centuries-old tradition of neutrality, but as a member of the military alliance would lose the image of a global antinuclear promoter. The paper is based on realistic premises regarding the security threat when analyzing the perception of the former Soviet and today’s Russian security threat. Normative approach was used to explain the abandonment of the nuclear program, noting that the security calculation overcame the strength of anti-nuclear norms in Sweden’s political practice. The relationship in the triangle NATO – neutrality – antinuclear posture will become more and more complicated over time, and after formal membership in NATO, Sweden may face the issue of deploying nuclear weapons on its territory. The paradox lies in the fact that Sweden abandoned its nuclear program on the verge of producing its own atomic arsenal, only to accept foreign (nuclear weapons) as part of its defense strategy decades later.

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In this paper, the authors start from the key elements of Serbia’s contemporary foreign policy, proving that economic interest could often be identified as the most important factor of Serbia’s activities in the foreign policy arena. As part of the argument for such claims, the authors refer to regional economic integration within the Western Balkans, starting primarily from the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA 2006) and Serbia’s position within it. The main goal of the authors is to provide an answer to the question of the role of the “Open Balkan” in Serbia’s foreign policy, that is, whether this initiative is one of Serbia’s instruments for achieving foreign policy goals. The authors prove that the basic role of the “Open Balkan” in Serbia’s foreign policy is to create a positive image of Serbia as an initiator of cooperation and reconciliation in the Western Balkans, but also a guarantor of stability in a politically unstable area. The establishment of a free flow of people, goods, capital and services among the countries of the Western Balkans and the creation of a significantly larger market would favor the further attraction of foreign direct investments and solve the problem of labor shortage in Serbia. Serbia’s foreign policy gains are reflected primarily in the achievement of international support, which project is not lacking for the “Open Balkan”, either from the European Union and the United States of America, but also from Russia and China. In the future, the “Open Balkan” could represent a platform for joint accession to the European Union, which creates additional room for maneuver for Serbia to strengthen its leadership position among the countries of the Western Balkans.

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The paper presents an analysis of the variations and types of cooperation between Serbia and Croatia during emergency situations that cause crossborder threats, such as those that existed during natural and other disasters such as floods, earthquakes, the COVID-19 virus pandemic, the refugee and migrant crisis, and so on. Emergency situations, by their very nature, presuppose cooperation with neighboring countries. The first part of the paper will discuss the categorical definition of the concept of emergency situations as a security threat, its constitutive elements, and different types and forms. The following is a comparative analysis of the development of the normative framework in the field of emergency situations, both in Serbia and Croatia. Understanding the specifics, similarities, and differences of positive legal principles in this area will allow us to understand the scope of their application through practical examples, which will be discussed in the third part of the paper. The conclusion of the analysis is that cooperation between Serbia and Croatia in emergency situations in practice records ambivalent or mixed results.

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This paper deals with the relations between the key countries that geographically belong to the British Isles and Latin American countries. By using comparative and historiographical methods, the paper intends to offer an answer to the research question: Does the Republic of Ireland, due to more historical similarities with Latin American countries than the other countries of the British Isles, has to have better economic and political relations with Latin America? The paper is based on the hypothesis that the Republic of Ireland, through cooperation with the countries of Latin America (despite specific differences compared to other countries of the British Isles), strives to exert an identical influence in terms of the affirmation of Western Christian values in the countries of Latin America. Finally, it aligns with the EU’s policy of deeper cooperation with Latin America. After the Introduction, the central section of this paper is divided into four sub-sections that follow historical events in Ireland and the United Kingdom as well as their influences on relationships with Latin American countries, particularly during the Cold War and Post-Cold War periods. After passing the long territorialization process and during the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Republic of Ireland, which geographically belongs to the British Isles but remained part of the EU even after the withdrawal of Great Britain, became a country, formally and essentially capable of maintaining its economic, political, and cultural relationships with Latin American countries. This is the point emphasised in the conclusion.

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Аuthor examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in Mexico from independence until today. Mexico is a country that, after gaining independence, had established the Catholicism as the state religion and a model of religious nationalism, and then with the liberal Constitution of 1857 and the revolutionary Constitution of 1917 had separated the Church and the State and established a model of secular nationalism based on secularism and anti-clericalism. The author raises the twofold research question: what the nature of secular nationalism looks like after a period of “thawing” of frozen relations during the 1990s and whether the unstable form indicates a gradual transition to a model of civil-religious nationalism? The aim of the paper is to point out the changed character of nationalism, the most important identity and state-building characteristic of Mexico, and to offer a prediction of the development trend of the relationship between religion and nationalism in the future of Mexico. Because there is no prospect of secular nationalism being abandoned in the near future, its real provocateurs are drug cartels, which, as a “state within a state”, tend to build their own form of religion. Аuthor predicts that the Roman Catholic Church will respond to it, equally as a national and transnational actor. Its strategy would require the stabilization of secular nationalism, but this time within the limits of “twin toleration” between the Church and government.