Issue 4

International Higher Education as Foreign Policy: Comparing the Strategies of the EU, China, and Russia Towards Central Asia

  • Author: Kerry Anne Longhurst
  • Institution: Collegium Civitas (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4710-2640
  • Author: Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska
  • Institution: Collegium Civitas (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1677-986X
  • Author: Katarzyna Skiert-Andrzejuk
  • Institution: Collegium Civitas (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4451-5092
  • Published online: 15 July 2022
  • Final submission: 16 March 2022
  • Printed issue: 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 13
  • Pages: 111-123
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202228
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202228.pdf

The article sheds light on the nexus between higher education and foreign policy. International higher education has become an increasingly prominent element of some states’ policies towards other countries as a flank to traditional foreign policy. It has occurred in Central Asia, where the European Union, China and Russia are all supporting teaching, research and capacity-building activities in the tertiary sectors of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Although they employ similar tools and instruments, the assumptions and visions underpinning their respective strategies diverge. Russia’s strategy is shaped by historically informed identity factors and the impulse to entrench predominance in the post-Soviet space, whilst China uses its support for higher education as a soft infrastructure for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Meanwhile, the EU has integrated higher education into its strategy for the region, which aims at drawing Central Asia closer to its orbit through democratisation and the rule of law.

soft power higher education Central Asia European Union Russia China

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Psychosocial Effects of the Pandemic. Stress and Sense of Safety Experienced by Poles During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020–2021

  • Author: Robert Piec
  • Institution: Main School of Fire Service (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-5639
  • Author: Barbara Szykuła-Piec
  • Institution: Main School of Fire Service (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4533-232X
  • Author: Izabella Helena Grabowska-Lepczak
  • Institution: Main School of Fire Service (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4695-3993
  • Author: Weronika Jakubczak
  • Institution: Main School of Fire Service (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1501-5064
  • Published online: 20 November 2022
  • Final submission: 27 October 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 16
  • Pages: 125-139
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202229
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202229.pdf

The pandemic that broke out in 2019 had a significant impact on the lives of all social groups around the world. The imposed restrictions and mandatory quarantine were crucial to limit the virus’s spread. The research comprises an analysis of the psychosocial impact exerted by the pandemic that attempted to determine the response to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. For this purpose, a study on social resilience in the pandemic era was worked out. The study consisted of several parts: stress and the sense of safety, education, trust and defined needs and the mass media in COVID-19. The research team decided to present the study’s results in a series of articles that will contribute to forming a complete picture of the community in the context of the analysed variables. The paper is the first in this series. It contains an analysis of variables intended to determine the level of the experienced sense of safety and its constituent, i.e., stress, and the identification of socio-demographic data strongly influencing the studied variables. The study comprised 559 individuals who were surveyed between May 2020 and November 2020 with the use of an online survey questionnaire. SPSS Statistics version 21.0 and PQStat were used to conduct statistical analyses and correlate and assess the correlation of responses. Also used were Chisquare, Fisher’s test and Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient. A logistic regression analysis was carried out for dichotomous variables. The results of the study indicate that the level of experienced stress is influenced by age, place of residence, gender and job security. The sense of safety is inversely correlated with stress, i.e., as stress increases, the sense of safety decreases, indicating a need to undertake appropriate measures to reduce stress. It may be interesting to compare the level of stress with, among other things, information retrieval from different sources. These results will be presented in the subsequent studies.

psychosocial effects sense of safety level of stress COVID-19 resilience safety community

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Book Review: Patrycja Olchowska, Społeczna konstrukcja problemu niepodległości Czeczenii, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2018, pp. 359.

  • Author: Kamil Pietrasik
  • Institution: Asia-Pacific Society (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8579-0659
  • Published online: 25 July 2022
  • Final submission: 12 May2022
  • Printed issue: 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 3
  • Pages: 165-167
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202234
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202234.pdf

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Evolution of the Methodology of Conducting Military Operations on the Example of the Clash of Two-Speed Civilisations During the Conflict in Ukraine 2014–2022

  • Author: Szymon Mitkow
  • Institution: Military University of Technology (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2845-2589
  • Author: Marcin Górnikiewicz
  • Institution: Military University of Technology (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1391-7841
  • Author: Ewa Sługocka
  • Institution: Team for Service in International Military Structures (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3151-4701
  • Published online: 10 November 2022
  • Final submission: 22 September 2022
  • Printed issue: 2023
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 12
  • Pages: 35-46
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202264
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202264.pdf

The difference in the methodology of conducting military operations by Russian and Ukrainian troops during the war ongoing since February 2022 is striking. It does not result only from the adopted convention of conducting these activities but is conditioned on a much deeper mental level resulting from cultural conditions. They determine the perception and understanding of the phenomenon of war. In other words, the operational and tactical methodology can be adapted to changing realities, provided that the essence of such a change is understood in terms of achieving the assumed military and non-military goals. Furthermore, these goals could be achieved by conducting military operations according to a completely different methodology, probably with much greater effectiveness. Why, in such a perspective, did the Russian side choose such a barbaric way of conducting war, characterising the methodology of military actions of the past decades or even centuries? This paper aims to answer the research question: What premises condition the Russian methodology of military action in the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022? Empirical methods were employed to obtain an answer to this question.

two-speed civilisations military operation war in Ukraine Russia Ukraine

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World Responsibility to Act in Russia’s War Against Ukraine

  • Author: Brygida Kuźniak
  • Institution: Jagiellonian University (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8061-3274
  • Author: Ihor Zeman
  • Institution: Ivan Franko University of Lviv (Ukraine)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3252-6491
  • Published online: 20 October 2022
  • Final submission: 18 July 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 10
  • Pages: 85-94
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202247
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202247.pdf

The article aims to address the following question: in the case of a war in Ukraine, is public international law an obstacle to the application of combined international enforcement action within the framework of the collective security system under the auspices of the United Nations, or whether such impediments lie elsewhere? Russia’s presence in the Security Council as a permanent member, and thus endowed with the privilege of vetoing resolutions, paralyses this body. Therefore, the subject of the analysis is what other actions of the United Nations are permitted by law. It is important for assessing the status of the UN as a collective actor in international relations, the main objective of which, under Art. 1 of the UN Charter, is “to maintain international peace and security, and, to that end: to take effective collective measures for (…) the suppression of acts of aggression”. Bearing in mind the fact that international law is a consensual legal order, the article assesses its available compulsory mechanisms and instruments. The supplementary objective is to determine whether it is permissible to use the term “war” with regard to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

the system of collective security the war in Ukraine public international law United Nations Russia

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State Security and Individual Security as Exemplified by the Recruitment of Secret Collaborators by the Polish Intelligence Service

  • Author: Remigiusz Rosicki
  • Institution: Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1187-5895
  • Published online: 30 October 2022
  • Final submission: 7 August 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 19
  • Pages: 65-83
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202255
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202255.pdf

The material scope of the research problem presented in the text encompasses the issues concerned with the possibilities for and limitations of recruiting secret collaborators by the Polish civilian intelligence service. The analysis of the problematics of secret collaboration focuses mainly on institutional and legal aspects, which can be seen in its inclusion in the systemic legal perspective, encompassing such dimensions as administrative and legal, criminal and legal, civil and legal, and ethical one. Next to the normative aspects, the text addresses sociological and psychological aspects of recruiting secret collaborators by special services, thereby depicting the main recruitment methods. The methodology adopted is chiefly based on the institutional and legal approach, in which use is made of, inter alia, textual, functional and systemic interpretations. The problem of possible abuse concerned with the recruitment of secret collaborators by special services is illustrated with an abstract case study and a relevant legal interpretation. Besides, to extend the analysis of psychological and sociological aspects of recruiting secret collaborators, the study uses limited open interviews with former officers of the civilian special services operating in Poland before 1990.

recruitment of agents secret collaboration special services state security intelligence counter-intelligence

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Terrorism and the Hybrid Warfare in Aspect of War in Ukraine

  • Author: Wojciech Wróblewski
  • Institution: The Main School of Fire Service in Warsaw (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3415-9485
  • Published online: 30 October 2022
  • Final submission: 10 September 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 13
  • Pages: 95-107
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202254
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202254.pdf

Contemporary terrorism is characterised by a complex and networked model of operation. While the main objectives of terrorist acts remain the same, the attack environment, tactics and tools are changing. The international community is taking steps to strengthen counter-terrorism systems, but these are peaceful solutions. These models do not consider the conditions of hybrid armed conflicts in which terrorism is an element of combat tactics. It is a relatively new phenomenon and particularly dangerous for the civilian population. The acts of terror in hybrid warfare are not mechanisms with a simple scheme of action, and, as we try to show in this article, they represent a deliberate and broad spectrum of action. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand terrorism in the context of the threat of hybrid war (especially when terrorist acts complement hybrid tactics or significantly replace conventional tactics). This type of threat must be recognised before achieving its strategic goals. From the substantive point of view, the article studies the problem of terrorism as one of the threats of an armed conflict in Ukraine, commonly known as hybrid war.

civil protection war in Ukraine terrorism hybrid warfare

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Emotional Dynamics of Populism and Its Non-Populist Alternatives: Discussing the Role of Compassion and Pride

  • Author: Patryk Wawrzyński
  • Institution: Nicolaus Copernicus University (Poland); University of Szczecin (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0911-1068
  • Author: Joanna Marszałek-Kawa
  • Institution: Nicolaus Copernicus University (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4201-8028
  • Published online: 11 December 2022
  • Final submission: 17 November 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 16
  • Pages: 47-62
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202267
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202267.pdf

The paper discusses populist appeals to emotions in political communication, considering their role in the proliferation of political polarisation and radicalisation. Revisiting the Emotional Rescue Model of anger, enthusiasm, and fear, we considered pride and compassion low-arousal alternatives to populist storytelling. In the experiments, we tested how participants (n=364) respond to appeals to pride and compassion in their brain activity, emotional expressions, prosocial behaviour, attitude change, and memorisation. In the paper, we primarily discussed the results of the fMRI (neuroimaging) study and compared them with the previous studies on authentic pride, compassion, empathy, and reappraisal. Considering similarities in the activation of the superior and middle temporal gyri, temporal pole, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, we argue that compassionate political narratives should be the most effective low-arousal alternative to populist storytelling. Moreover, stimulation of the reappraisal-related network in that group suggests that participants reframed emotional negativity into prosocial acts of caring and helping, also re-evaluating their attitudes.

pride compassion anger fear Populism emotions

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Report from the 6th Scientific Round Table of the Constitutional Judiciary “Free and Fair Elections” November 25, 2022, Department of Constitutional Law of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw

  • Author: Radoslaw Łukasz Zych
  • Institution: University of Szczecin (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1221-9136
  • Published online: 16 December 2022
  • Final submission: 25 November 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 4
  • Pages: 195-198
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202241
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202241.pdf

Non-Liberal Democracy and the Possibilities of Its Consolidation

  • Author: Danuta Plecka
  • Institution: University of Gdańsk (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8504-279X
  • Published online: 30 October 2022
  • Final submission: 30 August 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 10
  • Pages: 25-34
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202260
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202260.pdf

The notion of non-liberal democracy has become an inseparable element of the debate on the crisis of liberal democracy. For some scholars and journalists, non-liberal democracy is a consequence of the crisis of liberal democracy. It should be pointed out that when indicating the causes of this crisis in the economic, political, and cultural spheres, researchers rarely address the issue of the legitimacy of identifying democracy as non-liberal and its characteristics. Moreover, no one has initiated a broad debate on the possibility of a retreat from non-liberal democracy and the conditions that must be met to return to liberal democracy. That is why this paper attempts to describe the phenomenon called nonliberal democracy and analyse the conditions which should be fulfilled, both in political and social terms. It is to enable the return to the idea of liberal democracy.

democratic backsliding non-liberal democracy illiberal democracy crisis democracy

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Managing Emotions During Social Protests and the Political Subjectivity of the Protesters

  • Author: Roman Bäcker
  • Institution: Nicolaus Copernicus University (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3796-3711
  • Published online: 30 October 2022
  • Final submission: 15 October 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 18
  • Pages: 7-23
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202249
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202249.pdf

The paper’s aim is to check whether there is a relationship between the effectiveness of emotion management techniques and the protesters’ subjectivity level in Poland. In this case, it is necessary to analyse selected significant social protests in terms of the emotions felt by the ruling elites, the emotions they evoke among the protesters, and the level of political subjectivity possessed by the latter. In June 1956, the technique of masking emotion management was used effectively. The intensification technique in October was fully effective. In December 1970, only the use of the intensification technique brought results. In June 1976, the masking technique proved to be effective within a limited time range. In the summer of 1980, the party-state apparatus was not able to effectively manage emotions. The breakthrough was the introduction of martial law and forcing a significant part of society to be submissive and conformist. Managing emotions by intensifying them during the Women’s Strike proved to be partially effective. Crossing the threshold of subjectivity by opposition social groups makes the management of emotions generally ineffective. The paper offers an innovative research design for analysing the relationships between the management of emotions and the political subjectivity level.

social protests political empowerment emotional management Poland

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Challenges of Local Senior Policy and Problems of the Elderly During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Face of Deinstitutionalisation of Social Services

  • Author: Michał Marcin Kubiak
  • Institution: University of Gdańsk (Poland)
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4231-8071
  • Published online: 30 December 2022
  • Final submission: 16 December 2022
  • Printed issue: December 2022
  • Source: Show
  • Page no: 22
  • Pages: 141-162
  • DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202271
  • PDF: ppsy/51/ppsy202271.pdf

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the elderly in a special way. On the one hand, it contributed to the increase in health deficits and those related to social isolation. On the other hand, it also had a significant impact on the level and methods of support provided to seniors. The pandemic situation turned out to be a particular challenge for local governments and non-governmental organisations operating in various areas of senior policy. The general aim of the article was to analyse the state’s initiatives aimed at counteracting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic addressed to seniors and examples of activities of the local government and the civil sector cooperating with it for the benefit of this group of people. In turn, the specific objective was to identify and understand the greatest difficulties that seniors had during the pandemic and the role played by the non-governmental organisation (both during the pandemic and as an entity of potential support in the future, which was particularly interesting given the European Union promoting services provided in the local environment). In connection with the specific objective, qualitative research was carried out using the in-depth interview method. The interviews were based on scripts that concerned four areas: problems and experiences of the elderly during the pandemic, help and support, communication, health, and well-being.

non-government organisations senior policy and COVID-19 elderly people social policy

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