Violence and social consequences of the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone

The civil war in Liberia began in 1989, when the country was attacked by the rebels of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor. In Sierra Leone the civil war was initiated in 1991 by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankoh. The article describes the specifics of the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It discusses social and economic context of the wars as well as causes of their longevity. In addition, it presents the international community actions for ending the prolonged civil war in Sierra Leone and the importance of the policy “weapon for diamonds”. The article uses a historical-analytical method of research.

National identity is an important aspect of shaping the nation. Macedonians create their identity, and thus their separateness from others, with the help of elements that bind the community together, such as - the state, religion, and language. As early as 1991, when the Republic of Macedonia gained independence, the country fought for its national independence. At that time, there were many conflicts related to Macedonian identity. The main goal of the article is to present crucial changes in the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia that occurred after 1991 and were related to signed international agreements as well as to two conflicts: Macedonian-Albanian and Macedonian-Greek

The European Union towards the arm conflicts and socio-political changes in the MENA region in the 20th and 21st centuries

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa are one of the main areas of interest of the European Union, and the main determinants of mutual relations are primarily the economy and security policy. The aim of the article is to show how the position of the European Union is shaped in relation to the main challenges and threats in this region, to which the Israeli-Arabic conflict, the Palestinian issue and the so-called Arab Spring, as well as the escalation of the conflict in Syria and the problem of international terrorism.

School education in danger? The Polish and Lithuanian perspective of changes and the situation of school in Lithuania. A study of one event

Representatives of every minority want their rights to be respected in the state in which they live and of which they are citizens. The problems related to education for national minorities are among the most complicated and arguable. Political controversies and disputes in magazine columns do not always translate into good relations in the culturally diverse environment. The text is aimed to present the situation related to the conflict in one of the schools in Lithuania, which began (as a kind of prelude) at the end of 2021 and developed in 2022. Our assumption was to analyze the described situation from three perspectives presented in: the Polish press in the context of some actions taken by the government and their effects, as well as the way of describing them; an analogical presentation of the Lithuanian perspective and the stakeholders themselves (including the headmaster of the school where the described situation took place). For a better understanding of the context of the described analyses, the text begins with a brief description of the current legal status, the educational network and its scope.