States, being the fundamental forms of political organization of contemporary societies, are presently undergoing dynamic transformations connected with the processes of globalization and integration, among others in the field of the functions exercised by them, as well as the way of their performing. This has considerable significance, especially in the context of state security, for its assuring to citizens, both in the internal and external dimensions, is still one of the most important objectives of emerging and lasting of such a community. Key is also here the problem of the new comprehension of sovereignty. Among the most essential factors influencing this substance are undoubtedly globalization and regional integration processes. Thus, the 21st century states in the whole world are facing totally different, unknown hitherto challenges, requiring from them to adapt their tasks and, in consequence, also their legal orders to the constantly changing political and legal reality.

Regional market integration is crucial in increasing development for emerging economies. However, research has shown that, in the case of developing countries, the process of market integration faces various obstacles. This study aims to analyse the key determinants of successful market integration for developing countries, as well as to investigate under what conditions some countries may benefit more (or less) than others from market integration, particularly in the SADC region. Based on the existing literature on the main debates and theories on regional market integration of developing countries, this study has used the method of process-tracing to investigate the causal relationship between governance and institutions, market integration and development. The analysis based on this study has found that good and sound policies aimed at increasing domestic capabilities deriving from both public and private governance and institutions is vital in determining relative market integration success. The results indicate that the discrepancies found among SADC Member States hinder the process of regional market integration. On this basis, it is recommended that the linkages between the SADC Member States be strengthened through increased levels of coordination and integration.

Role theory and Russia’s attempts to integrate the post-Soviet space: from internal to international duties

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow’s foreign policy towards the post-Soviet space has become an even greater area of concern. In order to better understand Russia’s behaviour in the post-Soviet space, it is worth analysing what led to Moscow’s renewed interest in this area. There are numerous accounts explaining Russia’s policies towards its neighbourhood, but they often focus on material factors or Russian imperial complexes. To address the existing gap and examine changes in Moscow’s attitude towards the region, this paper will use role theory and analyse shifts in Russia’s national role conceptions. It argues that the combination of important external and internal factors led to changes in perception of Russia’s international duties and responsibilities between Putin’s rise to power and his return to the presidency in 2012. Consequently, these changes resulted in different understanding of Russia’s role in the post-Soviet space, which had implications for Russia’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region afterwards.

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.

Status and importance of the Three Seas in construction of contemporary global security architecture

This article covers a cross-sectional and updating reflection on the phenomena taking place in the security sphere of the region, the so-called Three Seas. The research subject of the article is the Three Seas Initiative format as a potential subjective keystone of the security of Central and Eastern Europe, treated taking into account historical and current events, as one of the foundations of not only the European or Euro-Atlantic, but also the global security architecture. The priority research goal was to present and analyze the progress and integration and institutional perspectives of the Three Seas Region, and thus an attempt to search for the status arrangements of this format, by analyzing this geopolitical space in the light of, above all, the concept of regional security complexes (but also, among others, geopolitical wedges, the influence of superpowers of the global balance of power). The findings presented in these investigations signal both attempts to comprehensively bind the region with interdependence, attempts at far-reaching rapprochement and co-creation of soft security architecture – in the form of development-progressing infrastructure, as well as pragmatic and conservative behavior, resulting from both the geopolitical dynamics and current national calculations of the Three Seas countries.