Pub Date : 2022-10-07DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129320
Hayriye Kahveci-Özgür, Jiuzhou Duan
ABSTRACT The paper argues that Chinese involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean is primarily motivated by increasing the country’s economic role within the region through Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The paper uses case study analysis methodology dwelling on the evolution and content of Chinese involvement in Greece and Cyprus. Primarily focusing of the nature of the Chinese investments in strategic sectors of the two cases in question the role that that China plays in Eastern Mediterranean is described as a ‘silky involvement’. China’s policy choices are also perceived to be an opportunity for Greece and Cyprus to combat the negative effects of 2007–2008 economic crises and to increase their geopolitical stronghold in the post-Cold War geopolitical environment of the Eastern Mediterranean.
{"title":"China’s ‘Silky Involvement’ in the Eastern Mediterranean: A geopolitical upper hand for Greece and Cyprus?","authors":"Hayriye Kahveci-Özgür, Jiuzhou Duan","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129320","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper argues that Chinese involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean is primarily motivated by increasing the country’s economic role within the region through Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The paper uses case study analysis methodology dwelling on the evolution and content of Chinese involvement in Greece and Cyprus. Primarily focusing of the nature of the Chinese investments in strategic sectors of the two cases in question the role that that China plays in Eastern Mediterranean is described as a ‘silky involvement’. China’s policy choices are also perceived to be an opportunity for Greece and Cyprus to combat the negative effects of 2007–2008 economic crises and to increase their geopolitical stronghold in the post-Cold War geopolitical environment of the Eastern Mediterranean.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"65 - 81"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44644765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-04DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129328
A. Das
institutions and undermine democratic rule. Those left behind where the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and other Balkan countries who decided to take matters into their own hands and emigrate or protest. The third and final phase that Belloni introduces is marked by increased civic activism and citizen involvement. Titled ‘Tuzla, or the Local Turn’, after an industrial city that saw massive protests in 2014, it confronts the prevailing top-down dynamic of liberal peacebuilding that marked the two previous phases, through either imposition or cooperation. This phase coincides with the ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding literature. The focus is on dynamics between intervenors and intervened upon, including local resistance to international peacebuilding agendas. Belloni highlights the relevance of every-day experiences as opposed to the relevance of externally conceived institutional frameworks. The problem of agency and the interplay between international actors, local power structures, and citizens shape this phase. The local turn is rarely analysed in the Balkans as the plethora of academic literature on the region focuses on previous forms of international intervention. At the same time, citizens’ protests against local leaders do not feature prominently in international relations research, including peacebuilding. Belloni, however, demonstrates that the local turn in the Balkans is equally directed towards country elites as towards the results of international liberal intervention. Citizens’ demands for equality, inclusion and social justice do not always coincide with international state-building and European integration agendas. Facing corrupt local elites and resistant citizens, along with diminishing multilateral support for intervention, foreign actors including the European Union are recently being forced to reassess their strategies towards the Western Balkans in more pragmatic terms. The Balkans have been instrumental in shaping the academic literature on peacebuilding and are still relevant for this task. As Belloni traces the theoretical evolution of peacebuilding, he proficiently illustrates this through cases and developments in the Western Balkans. This book makes us appreciate how theory and practice are intertwined in a way that one informs the other. The insights into the complex interactions of international, local elites’ and citizens’ agendas that shape peacebuilding are equally applicable to other contexts of international intervention.
{"title":"The ethno-nationality of a modern saint: an interdisciplinary approach","authors":"A. Das","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129328","url":null,"abstract":"institutions and undermine democratic rule. Those left behind where the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and other Balkan countries who decided to take matters into their own hands and emigrate or protest. The third and final phase that Belloni introduces is marked by increased civic activism and citizen involvement. Titled ‘Tuzla, or the Local Turn’, after an industrial city that saw massive protests in 2014, it confronts the prevailing top-down dynamic of liberal peacebuilding that marked the two previous phases, through either imposition or cooperation. This phase coincides with the ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding literature. The focus is on dynamics between intervenors and intervened upon, including local resistance to international peacebuilding agendas. Belloni highlights the relevance of every-day experiences as opposed to the relevance of externally conceived institutional frameworks. The problem of agency and the interplay between international actors, local power structures, and citizens shape this phase. The local turn is rarely analysed in the Balkans as the plethora of academic literature on the region focuses on previous forms of international intervention. At the same time, citizens’ protests against local leaders do not feature prominently in international relations research, including peacebuilding. Belloni, however, demonstrates that the local turn in the Balkans is equally directed towards country elites as towards the results of international liberal intervention. Citizens’ demands for equality, inclusion and social justice do not always coincide with international state-building and European integration agendas. Facing corrupt local elites and resistant citizens, along with diminishing multilateral support for intervention, foreign actors including the European Union are recently being forced to reassess their strategies towards the Western Balkans in more pragmatic terms. The Balkans have been instrumental in shaping the academic literature on peacebuilding and are still relevant for this task. As Belloni traces the theoretical evolution of peacebuilding, he proficiently illustrates this through cases and developments in the Western Balkans. This book makes us appreciate how theory and practice are intertwined in a way that one informs the other. The insights into the complex interactions of international, local elites’ and citizens’ agendas that shape peacebuilding are equally applicable to other contexts of international intervention.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"158 - 160"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42189462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-29DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129321
Yahya Gülseven
ABSTRACT China often emphasizes the imperialist nature of the North-South development cooperation model and considers it a threat to the Global South. The Chinese administration has officially declared that its development aid falls into the South-South cooperation (SSC) category and is essentially different from North-South cooperation. As an international cooperation initiative proposed by China, The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most concrete example of China’s understanding and practice of SSC. This article critically examines whether and to what extent China’s South-South cooperation offers an alternative to North-South cooperation. Benefiting from examples of China’s aid practices in Egypt within the scope of the BRI, this study argues that China’s aid practices replicate the pattern of the North-South aid relations and the Western imperial practices.
{"title":"China’s Belt and Road Initiative and South-South Cooperation","authors":"Yahya Gülseven","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129321","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT China often emphasizes the imperialist nature of the North-South development cooperation model and considers it a threat to the Global South. The Chinese administration has officially declared that its development aid falls into the South-South cooperation (SSC) category and is essentially different from North-South cooperation. As an international cooperation initiative proposed by China, The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most concrete example of China’s understanding and practice of SSC. This article critically examines whether and to what extent China’s South-South cooperation offers an alternative to North-South cooperation. Benefiting from examples of China’s aid practices in Egypt within the scope of the BRI, this study argues that China’s aid practices replicate the pattern of the North-South aid relations and the Western imperial practices.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"102 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44369831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-29DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129319
P. Shlykov, E. Koldunova
ABSTRACT With the advancement in 2013 of its Belt and Road Initiative, China emerged as a new player in many regions in which it had been absent. These regions included the Eastern Mediterranean, where Russia has long been present, although historically Russian engagement varied depending on the geopolitical situation and its military-strategic and economic capabilities. This article explores whether the Eastern Mediterranean is witnessing a Russo-Chinese alliance in the making, with Russian and Chinese interests intersecting, or whether they are still developing on parallel tracks in relative isolation from one another. Moreover, how are the Eastern Mediterranean countries reacting, and will a growing Russian and Chinese presence correspond with or run counter to these countries’ interests?
{"title":"Russia and China in the Eastern Mediterranean: On Parallel Tracks?","authors":"P. Shlykov, E. Koldunova","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129319","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With the advancement in 2013 of its Belt and Road Initiative, China emerged as a new player in many regions in which it had been absent. These regions included the Eastern Mediterranean, where Russia has long been present, although historically Russian engagement varied depending on the geopolitical situation and its military-strategic and economic capabilities. This article explores whether the Eastern Mediterranean is witnessing a Russo-Chinese alliance in the making, with Russian and Chinese interests intersecting, or whether they are still developing on parallel tracks in relative isolation from one another. Moreover, how are the Eastern Mediterranean countries reacting, and will a growing Russian and Chinese presence correspond with or run counter to these countries’ interests?","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"48 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44564495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-29DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129326
N. Papanastasiou
{"title":"Greece’s Ostpolitik. Dealing With the ‘‘Devil’’","authors":"N. Papanastasiou","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129326","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"153 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48354226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129327
Damir Kapidžić
{"title":"The rise and fall of peacebuilding in the Balkans","authors":"Damir Kapidžić","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129327","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"156 - 158"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43323407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-27DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129325
Davide Rodogno, Jim Jarmusch
{"title":"Night on Earth","authors":"Davide Rodogno, Jim Jarmusch","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129325","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"152 - 153"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60386023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-27DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129323
Zhiqiang Zou, Ahmet Isik
ABSTRACT In the context of debates on the rise of China in the West, China’s seaport investment projects in the Mediterranean region have aroused concerns in the US and the EU given that they regard China as an emerging strategic and economic challenge. The EU has strategic doubts about the security, political, and economic implications of China’s seaport investments. The EU is concerned that Beijing’s investment has geopolitical and military purposes, which might undermine internal solidarity in the EU and subvert the existing shipping structure in Europe. This study attempts to discuss how does the EU perceives China’s seaport investment and reveal whether China is a status-quo competitor or a partner for the EU in the Mediterranean. The major finding indicates that the EU had the attitude of hedging China and the US influence plays a significant role on this issue. This study put forth a clear answer on China’s seaport investments’ ‘Dilemma’.
{"title":"China’s Seaport Investment in the Mediterranean Region and EU’s Interrogative Approach","authors":"Zhiqiang Zou, Ahmet Isik","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129323","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the context of debates on the rise of China in the West, China’s seaport investment projects in the Mediterranean region have aroused concerns in the US and the EU given that they regard China as an emerging strategic and economic challenge. The EU has strategic doubts about the security, political, and economic implications of China’s seaport investments. The EU is concerned that Beijing’s investment has geopolitical and military purposes, which might undermine internal solidarity in the EU and subvert the existing shipping structure in Europe. This study attempts to discuss how does the EU perceives China’s seaport investment and reveal whether China is a status-quo competitor or a partner for the EU in the Mediterranean. The major finding indicates that the EU had the attitude of hedging China and the US influence plays a significant role on this issue. This study put forth a clear answer on China’s seaport investments’ ‘Dilemma’.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"118 - 135"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42556455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-27DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2129324
Wenlong Song
ABSTRACT Since the end of the Cold War, the former Soviet states of Europe, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, have been the site of a political game between the great powers, gradually developing a left-right strategy. This paper constructs the explanatory theory of hedging strategy and argues that post-socialist European countries, collectively referred to as ‘New Europe’, have navigated a middle way between balance and followup strategies called compound hedging. Starting at the regional scale, this paper discusses three issues, i.e., whether the new Europe has adopted a hedging strategy, why they adopt a hedging strategy, and the policy performance and effectiveness of hedging in the security and economic fields. Specifically, New Europe has implemented diversified fuzzy strategies amidst the transatlantic alliances and Eurasian powers, avoided security risks from Russia through cooperation with NATO, and balanced interest risks caused by European Union pressure through contacts with the United States, Russia, China and other countries. Although New Europe has realized certain practical strategic effects, it still faces difficulties (e.g., structural pressure changes, divergences between old and New Europe, and a lack of hedging capacities and motivations), and its policy space remains narrow and uncertain.
{"title":"Between Europe and Asia: Narrow Spaces for Strategic Hedging in New Europe","authors":"Wenlong Song","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2129324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2129324","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the end of the Cold War, the former Soviet states of Europe, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, have been the site of a political game between the great powers, gradually developing a left-right strategy. This paper constructs the explanatory theory of hedging strategy and argues that post-socialist European countries, collectively referred to as ‘New Europe’, have navigated a middle way between balance and followup strategies called compound hedging. Starting at the regional scale, this paper discusses three issues, i.e., whether the new Europe has adopted a hedging strategy, why they adopt a hedging strategy, and the policy performance and effectiveness of hedging in the security and economic fields. Specifically, New Europe has implemented diversified fuzzy strategies amidst the transatlantic alliances and Eurasian powers, avoided security risks from Russia through cooperation with NATO, and balanced interest risks caused by European Union pressure through contacts with the United States, Russia, China and other countries. Although New Europe has realized certain practical strategic effects, it still faces difficulties (e.g., structural pressure changes, divergences between old and New Europe, and a lack of hedging capacities and motivations), and its policy space remains narrow and uncertain.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":"22 - 39"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49409569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-03DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2022.2037959
Roie Yellinek
ABSTRACT In an effort to support its economic growth that has become dependent on external factors, China has been ramping up its use of Soft Power Pipelines Diffusion. Due to Iran’s strategic location, rich oil and natural gas reserves and joint opposition to the US hegemony, China has been employing different instruments of Soft Power to gain influence in that country. This article will review and analyse the main expressions of China’s Soft Power pipelines in Iran and examine how they are perceived by the Iranian public. The findings of this study show that while some Iranians view Chinese influence as generally positive, others are more apprehensive and suspicious in their approach, but overall the Iranian know that they need China as an alliance.
{"title":"Soft Power and SPPD in China Iran Relationship","authors":"Roie Yellinek","doi":"10.1080/19448953.2022.2037959","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2022.2037959","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In an effort to support its economic growth that has become dependent on external factors, China has been ramping up its use of Soft Power Pipelines Diffusion. Due to Iran’s strategic location, rich oil and natural gas reserves and joint opposition to the US hegemony, China has been employing different instruments of Soft Power to gain influence in that country. This article will review and analyse the main expressions of China’s Soft Power pipelines in Iran and examine how they are perceived by the Iranian public. The findings of this study show that while some Iranians view Chinese influence as generally positive, others are more apprehensive and suspicious in their approach, but overall the Iranian know that they need China as an alliance.","PeriodicalId":45789,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies","volume":"24 1","pages":"733 - 754"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47549812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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