The paper refers to a diplomatic controversy between Brazil and the United States that took place in the late sixties of the 20th century. The reason of the dispute layed in a fact of exporting processed soluble coffee by Brazil to the USA at very competitive prices. The US processors didn’t have access to law grade coffees, which served as a raw material to fabrication of soluble powder. The US processors forced the Department of State to counteract that situation. As a result the USA government blamed Brazil of discriminatory trade practices and violating free trade. The controversy was put under the consideration of the International Coffee Organization. The proceedings coincided with the twilight of the American aid programme for Latin America called Alliance for Progress. The controversy was an instance of growing suspicions and deteriorating relations between Latin America and the USA, which changed its foreign policy in that region from supporting development of democracy in the continent toward backing up military regimes.

An essential element of international security policy shaping are documents of strategic or doctrinal character. They define the main assumptions of state security politics in the context of changes of global character. Undoubtedly this process is influenced by strategic concepts of two world powers: the USA and Russian Federation, both in the cold war past as well as now – main agents and creators of world security policy. this article will analyze the National Security Strategy of the USA, the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation and the War Doctrine of the Russian Federation.

Where is Ukraine going

The main thesis of article is the analyse of the socio-economic and national-politic situation of contemporary Ukraine, especially after it declared independence. The economy in the time 1991–2016 collapsed especially in the comparison to the Soviet time. It’s demonstrates by the deep fall of the industrial and agricultural production, high rate of deindustralization, the growth of unemployment and the emigration to west countries and Russia. The Ukrainian state and economy are in the deep crisis and their can’t to solve the basic internal and international problems and contradictions of the country. On the east border to Russia was broke the half open war, Crimea declared independence and joined to Russian Federation, Donetsk and Lugansk declared secession. The leading Ukrainian compradors wait the support from USA, NATO, UE, but the situation of Ukrainian state is dramatical and it’s near the category failure state, the perspective of the accession of Ukraine to EU is very long.

Constitutionality of acts of ceremonial deism in the U.S. case law

The paper deals with the notion of ceremonial deism, as it is understood in U.S. case law and jurisprudence. This term describes on kind of the government’s acts of symbolic references to God or religion, for example words „under God” in Pledge of Allegiance or the national motto – „In God We Trust”. American courts hold that particular forms of ceremonial deism are in accordance with the Establishment Clause due to their lack of a religious meaning (secularization thesis), nonsectarian nature, secular aims, historicity, ubiquity and non-controversiality. In the Author’s view, the above mentioned understanding of ceremonial deism is not fully proper. He calls on the rejection of secularization thesis and premise of non-sectarian nature. According to him, the public authorities’ acts of religious references are compliant with the Constitution when they perform significant secular aims, they do not have a devotional character and they constitute a testimony to the history and tradition of a particular country and its citizens. The criteria of ubiquity and non-controversiality may, due to its highly evaluative and subjective character, serve only a supportive role within the verification of the legality of a prima facie religious expression acts of the state. Theory of ceremonial deism, being understood properly, may constitute a valuable tool to evaluate the constitutionality of the public authority’s actions, also outside the United States.

Od 1979 roku reżim irański jest w zasadniczym konfl ikcie ze światem Zachodu, a szczególnie z USA i Wielką Brytanią oraz Izraelem. W tak długim okresie dochodziło do okresowych zmian, z którymi administracja USA wiązała pewne nadzieje. Niemniej jednak, mimo chwilowych okresów pozornej odwilży w stosunkach dwustronnych, za każdym razem następował powrót do tradycyjnej wrogości między Islamską Republiką Iranu a USA. Jednocześnie społeczeństwo irańskie jest narażone na nieustanne represje ze strony władz. Zachodzi więc zasadnicze pytanie, w jaki sposób i czy w ogóle Zachód, a przede wszystkim USA jako mocarstwo globalne, o największym potencjale militarno-operacyjnym pozwalającym na oddziaływanie w każdym rejonie świata, powinny reagować na sytuację i wydarzenia w Iranie.
Celem artykułu jest poddanie analizie charakteru oraz sposobów działania najważniejszych irańskich grup opozycyjnych, a także ich znaczenia dla programu politycznego USA zawartego w tzw. doktrynie Obamy (2009). Analiza najważniejszych grup opozycyjnych pozwoli na określenie stopnia możliwej ich współpracy z USA, jak i ich potencjału do sprawowania władzy w Iranie w sposób jak najbardziej demokratyczny.

The end of special relationships between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia?

The Saudi special relationships with the U.S., unlike that of the U.S. with Israel, are mutually beneficial. Saudi Arabia sells about 10 million barrels of oil a day and all those transactions are denominated in American dollars, which helps that currency to perform the role of the currency of account (world, s currency) and has been of crucial help to the American ambition to dominate the global economy. On the other hand the United States did its part to uphold the relationship be granting the security to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil states. This was demonstrated for example in 1990 during Iraqi attack on Kuwait, that also menaced Saudi Arabia. At that time the U.S. deployed 400,000 troops in Saudi Arabia and expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The priority of American foreign policy in that region has been to keep Gulf oil in friendly hands. Since the increase of the production of shale oil in the United States that priority has been less important. Another factor which has exerted an influence on the nature of the U.S.-Saudi relationship was the signing the permanent agreement with Iran in July 2015 on the limitation of the Iranian nuclear program and normalization of political-economic relations with the West. This has led to further worsening of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance which has always been like a ”marriage of convenience” where behind the façade of friendship and harmony there is cold calculation of benefi ts and losses. That alliance will last as long as the potential benefi ts will still be bigger than possible losses.

The subject of our interest is to present the significance of the Songun doctrine (Military First) in the North Korea’s internal and international politics. At the beginning, we intend to trace the concept of the Juche ideology and its essential implications for the role of the army in a country ruled by the Kim dynasty since the end of World War II. In the remainder of this study, we would like to characterize the theoretical and explanatory aspects of the Songun doctrine, focusing in particular on reviewing of its principles in terms of politics, economy, culture and propaganda aspects. In the context of the current situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, an important role is played by the Byungjin doctrine, initiated by the country’s leader Kim Jong-un and mentioned in our article, which in the future can contribute to the beginning of reforms in Korea’s economy. In summary, we presented forecasts for the future and our attempt to answer the question whether in the current international situation the Songun doctrine will be implemented in its present form.

Stosunki amerykańsko-chińskie w pierwszym roku prezydentury Donalda Trumpa były okresem gwałtownego przewartościowania polityki Waszyngtonu wobec Pekinu. Protekcjonistyczne hasło „America First” kontrastowało wyraźnie z próbą narzucania przez Chińską Republikę Ludową globalnej narracji otwartości gospodarczej, a wycofywanie się Stanów Zjednoczonych z porozumień wielostronnych zaczęły dyskontować władze Chin, wysuwając własne projekty multilateralne. W porównaniu z prezydenturą Baracka Obamy, postulującego „zwrot ku Azji” (pivot to Asia), pierwszych dwanaście miesięcy rządów jego następcy w Białym Domu charakteryzowała wyraźna zmiana priorytetów w polityce wobec Chin w oparciu o konfrontacyjną retorykę i rosnącą asertywność w kwestiach gospodarczych.

The turbulent changes in the Middle East which were seen at the very beginning as good news for Israel, at the end of the day became more ambiguous. The Arab Spring and then the war in Syria that had erupted along with massive social protests ended up with regime changes, but what was crucial, the primary success of the Arab awakening was captured by Islamist movements. The changes in the Middle East were even deeper due to at least two factors – Russia „coming into” and the United States „going out” of the region. These new regional circumstances combined with the geopolitical shift in the Middle East and a crumbling American supervision made Israel conclude that its security has become more complex and the U.S has no more been the only significant great power player in the region. Hence the difficult political and military situation around Israel has created a need to adapt to security challenges and simultaneously, to take political opportunities. The goal of this paper is to highlight basic ramifications for Israeli security and diplomacy of the American and Russian factors in the current Middle East politics. The key questions are: How to secure Israeli interests in these new circumstances? How to assess, on the one hand, the risk of the ongoing decline of American interests in the region and, on the other hand, the complexity of the Russian strategy in the Middle East? Finally, whether Israel might be able to gain recognition by the Arab world, not to mention to keep its strategic domination in the region which is already being challenged by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

The consequence of systemic and political changes in Poland involved reorientation of Polish policy in terms of perceiving security. It was reflected in newly defined policy directions which expression involved a search for the new guarantees of security. The problem of ensuring state security in new geopolitical conditions is expressed in the adopted hierarchy of priorities of implementation of the Polish national interest. The exercise of the specified policy priorities means Poland’s obtaining a solid security basis. The Polish Army, the armed forces of the Republic of Poland, has become an element of NATO’s broad security system. The implementation of the policy in this regard by the Polish government has recently been more and more unidimensional. Only cooperation with the USA is at the target of the Polish security policy. Issues related to its costs remain outside its determinants. There is no reflection on being dependent on another egoistic player.

Second Amendment to the American Constitution. Genesis, Targets and Objectives

The author will try to trace the genesis of the Second Amendment in the context of the American constitution process and the influence of other legal acts on the final content of the provision in question. What’s more the author will analyze the ideas that accompanied the Founding Fathers and which led to the creation of the United States Constitution. The author will analyze the objectives of the Second Amendment and the ideological assumptions that underpin it, including the issue of enabling citizens personal defense and the protection of private property, as well as the issue of guaranteeing citizens an effective tool to resist the state apparatus as a guarantee of citizens’ freedom as well as to prevent possible tyranny. Finally, the author will refer to the issue of culture of gun ownership in the USA and Poland.

This paper highlighted the use of cyberspace as a conflict zone by the US and China, focusing on competition in various technological spheres, including cyberespionage, military technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The main purpose of this study was to depict how great powers manipulate the cyber domain for their high political objectives through US-China rivalry. The research has been carried out mainly via literature review, discourse analysis, and relevant statistics. Consistent with previous literature and global public perception, the outcome has shown that both states are using cyberspace as a new domain for completion in trade, technology, and military purposes. Cyberespionage, the militarization of cyberspace, and AI have been the main conflict areas between these two global competitors in the last decade.

The paper comprises a retrospective overview of the educational situation of the Roma in the USA. In contrast to the European situation, efforts to establish schools for Romanies in the United States have been both few in number and - with only a couple of limited exceptions - unsuccessful. There are approximately one million Romanies in the USA, a number which is slowly growing and till now there are any schools established for Romanies to learn their mother tongue or to get integrated in the mainstream educational system of the USA.

Przedmiotem mojego zainteresowania jest przedstawienie najważniejszych uwarunkowań i implikacji charakteryzujących relacje chińsko- -południowokoreańskie za rządów Xi Jinpinga na płaszczyźnie politycznej i ekonomicznej. Celem moich rozważań będzie opisanie aktualnego stanu rzeczy we wzajemnych stosunkach oraz próba przeanalizowania, jak relacje obu podmiotów będą wpływać na konfigurację międzynarodową systemu bezpieczeństwa na terenie Azji Wschodniej. Na wstępie niniejszego studium prześledzę historię wzajemnych relacji za czasów zimnej wojny i proces normalizacji stosunków. Następnie przeanalizuję kontakty na linii Chiny–Republika Korei od 2013 r. i objęcia przez Xi Jinpinga oraz Parka Geun-hye sterów władzy w swoich krajach, skupiając się na najistotniejszym wówczas dla obustronnych związków problemie programu nuklearnego Korei Północnej. Niezwykle ważnym zagadnieniem w niniejszym tekście jest poruszenie kwestii zainstalowania na terenie Korei Południowej amerykańskiego systemu przeciwrakietowego THAAD w lipcu 2016 r., co doprowadziło do pogorszenia się relacji między Chinami a Republiką Korei, gdyż chiński rząd potraktował ten krok jako zagrożenia dla bezpieczeństwa ChRL. Istotnym punktem moich rozważań będzie także znaczenie rywalizacji amerykańsko-chińskiej dla kontaktów między rządami obu omawianych w tekście krajów azjatyckich. W dalszej części opisuję kontakty Pekin–Seul po wybuchu epidemii koronawirusa na przełomie 2019 i 2020 r. Dodatkowo poruszam także problem powiązań ekonomicznych obu państw. W podsumowaniu chciałbym odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy w przyszłości należy spodziewać się intensyfikacji stosunków Pekin–Seul. Zamierzam stwierdzić, jak przybierająca na sile rywalizacja na linii Stany Zjednoczone–Chiny może przyczynić się do modyfikacji priorytetów dyplomacji południowokoreańskiej.

US–Taliban: Difficulties and Prospects for Implementing the Peace Agreement

The article presents an analysis of the peace agreement signed between the United States of America and the Taliban on behalf of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. This agreement is intended to end the war in Afghanistan, in which the United States, NATO countries, and their allies are participating. The aim of the study was to answer the question: can this agreement lead to peace in Afghanistan? The main research methods were the content analysis methodology and the institutional-legal methodology.

Artykuł dotyczy udziału Rosji w nowej fazie konfliktu syryjskiego. USA i Federacja Rosyjska doszły do porozumienia w kwestii powstrzymania wymiany ognia między wojującymi siłami rządu i „umiarkowanej” opozycji w Syrii, począwszy od godziny 12.00 czasu damasceńskiego dnia 26 lutego 2016 r. To porozumienie zapoczątkowało nową rundę rozmów w ramach procesu genewskiego, które z przerwami pozostają w toku do dnia dzisiejszego. Autor zajmuje się zaangażowaniem rosyjskim w wymienionej wojnie. Wraca też do wcześniejszych etapów obecności rosyjskiej w Syrii, a także do tła rosyjskiej polityki bliskowschodniej i międzynarodowej w okresie przywództwa Putina.

Economic relations between the European Union and Iran versus sanctions and energy security

The article provides an analysis economical and political relationship between Islamic Republic of Iran and European Union and its members countries, particularly Greece, Italy and Spain in the context of politics of energy safety. Prior to the adoption of heavy economic sanctions the EU led a double track politics towards Iran: “carrot and stick method”. The main thesis is that sanction on Iran hurts more this country then EU but in some cases: Greece, Italy, Spain could have problems with new energy partners. Iran before sanctions was one of the main European suppliers of oil and natural gas but not for all EU, only for few countries. There are lists of main exporters and importers Iranians oil and natural gas in EU and the world. Additionally a list of EU sanctions on Iran has been attached. Additionally article presents roots of piece of Middle Eastern enemy history relationships between Great Britain, USA and Iran.

Consequences of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war for the positioning of the «Three Seas Initiative» in global politics

The article discusses the term “Three Seas Initiative” – a product of the adaptation of the philosophical and geographical category “Intermarium” to the description of Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The thesis is substantiated that the application of the category “Intermarium” to Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe is due not only to the “mental geography” of Polish political thought and the practical needs of Polish geopolitics of the 20th and 21st centuries but also to the objectively existing general characteristics of the region (its buffer status between geopolitical powers of Germany and Russia, the lower level of prosperity of this region compared to Western Europe, its predominantly Slavic character, which repeatedly pushes the implementation of pan-Slavist projects in the Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the trends in social, in particular, cultural, economic and political, which are observed at least since the late 1980s). It is argued that the project “Three Seas Initiative” by A. Duda is a modern reincarnation of the idea of the Prometheists – “Intermarium”, created between the two world wars on the basis of the Jagiellonian idea of the Early Modern Age. This project arose as an opposition of rightwing conservative, poorer EU members to its left-liberal, rich participants with external support from the Eurosceptic, right-wing populist government of D. Trump in the USA. However, the evolution of the Three Seas Initiative finally led it to institutionalization as one of the cores of integration in the modern European Union at different speeds, with an emphasis on the development of cross-border communication and infrastructure projects in the region with the cooperation of the EU and the USA. It is emphasized that after the start of the Russian- Ukrainian war, the threat of its spread to the territory of the “Three Seas Initiative”, which the EU cannot overcome, forces the members of the initiative to seek direct military support from the United States in exchange for Washington’s support in its opposition to Beijing, an ally of Moscow. “Three Seas Initiative” could be perceived as an activation of the role of the region as one of the outposts of opposition to Chinese influence on the planet. In addition, the Russian- Ukrainian war involuntarily led to the achievement of one of the goals of the Three Seas Initiative - the development of the logistics infrastructure of its participants, due to the need to serve large-scale land and air movements of troops and the functioning of “grain” and humanitarian corridors from the European Union to Ukraine. Also, a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war caused the resuscitation and development of the military-industrial complex of the Three Seas Initiative countries, its integration within the region and the rest of the EU, as well as with Ukraine, the USA, and South Korea, which gives a chance for high-tech economic growth of the participants of the project.

The analysis is based on theoretical assumptions characteristic of the multi-order world by Trine Flockhart concept. The main factor influencing the situation in the Indo-Pacific region is the conflict between two international orders, Chinese-led and American-led, which is economic but may take a military form in the future. The practical limitations of the article result from the complex process of analyzing and forecasting political phenomena in statu nascendi. The analysis contributes to the scientific discussion on the future of international relations in the Indo-Pacific region. The American-led order in the Indo-Pacific region is based on the institutionalized forms of cooperation involving Anglo-Saxon states based on identity factors determining their effectiveness. The US strategy for the Indo-Pacific is mainly based on the network of partnerships with the region’s countries and countries from other parts of the world supporting the American-led order in the region, especially the Anglo-Saxon countries. In addition to identity factors, the positive long-term experience of military cooperation between the Anglo-Saxon countries is significant. The escalation of the global conflict between the US and China will be conducive to further tightening this cooperation.

The Middle East conflict, or more specifically, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been destabilizing the region for many decades now. With time it became transparent that the bilateral talks of the conflicted actors were not realistic, and a mediator was necessary. Due to the unfolding events of the Cold War and US global domination as a result, the following American Presidents were attempting to bring Israel and Palestine to the negotiation table and resolve the conflict. The efforts have failed. In this paper I will analyze a new idea for the Middle East proposed by Donald Trump and continued by Joe Biden – The Abraham Accords. The new strategy aims at building a bilateral platform for cooperation between Israel and the Arab states of the region. While the initial target for the authors of this initiative was to normalize Israeli-Arab relations and as a consequence, stabilize the region. This paper analyzes the place of Palestine in this Middle East stabilization attempt and its future. In light of the American Abraham Accords initiative, the outcome of a final solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is bleak since it only addresses certain issues like development and promoting living standards (which might be accomplished by building Israeli-Arab relations), but, in the foreseeable future, fails to address the most crucial issues – the future of Jerusalem, Israeli settlement building and the Palestinian refugee crises.