Energy Security Policy of the People’s Republic of China towards the Caspian States of Central Asia

In contemporary international relations, the issue of energy security is becoming fundamental. Access to energy resources is an existential need of every country, conditioning its economic and social development. In such a situation, states try to construct long-term energy security policies to ensure smooth supplies of raw materials. The research problem is the analysis of the energy security policy of the People’s Republic of China towards the Caspian states of Central Asia: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In the research process, a hypothesis was verified, assuming that China’s energy security policy in the Caspian region of Central Asia is determined by the increased demand of this superpower for energy resources and geographical proximity to oil and gas deposits located in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) became interested in the hydrocarbon resources of the Central Asian region right after the collapse of the USSR. At that time, the energy security policy of this superpower was implemented in several stages: from gaining access to the oil and gas reserves of the countries of the region to the construction of export pipelines supplying the absorptive Chinese market. Thus, the analysis presents the conditions of the PRC’s energy security policy, its institutional dimension and actions towards Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, both in upstream and midstream terms.

The significance of maritime interactions has impacted coastal and landlocked countries. Nepal’s response to the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) signifies the same. For Nepal, crossing seas was culturally associated with sin as an objective to fulfill the isolationist policy adopted until the political change of 1950. As such, Nepal’s interaction with the sea was not so friendly in the past. However, these historical shreds of evidence cannot suffice as the reason behind her denial of joining the IPS. Most of the available literature divulges the sensitive geographical position of Nepal in the context of the rise of China and the projection of a ‘new Cold War’ for its reluctance to join the Indo-Pacific strategy. However, they fail to probe into the domestic intricacies contributing to the hesitation. In this context, this paper primarily tries to dwell upon the actors and factors that have influenced Nepal’s dubiety in joining the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Thus, this paper aims to fulfill two objectives. First, to analyze the role of geographical sensitivity, and second, to scrutinize the domestic interplay of things. As exploratory qualitative research, this study reviews the official documents, agreements, statements, speeches, and reports from think tanks and newspapers to hypothesize that besides external factors there are integral internal elements that have played a part in Nepal’s denial to join the strategic partnership.

Human Remains in Asian Museums and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The work concerns the restitution of museum remains as a special cultural asset found in archaeological museums. The research problem concerns reverence towards human remains constituting museum exhibits on the example of Singapore museums. This type of museum inventory has become the subject of intensified restitution activities on the part of tribal minorities, indigenous peoples, who claim the right to them based on the right to worship after their deceased ancestors, the right to protect cultural, religious, and traditional heritage. Such law is based particularly on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The research objective focuses, first of all, on the legal grounds resulting from the Declaration, and secondly, on the analysis of the inventory of selected Singaporean museums, which contain exhibits that are human remains in their collections. The main research hypothesis focuses on the statement that Singapore, as one of the few Asian countries, maintains a special regime of pietism towards the deceased, which is manifested in the way of treating and storing human remains as museum exhibits. It may be due to the country’s cultural conditions on the one hand, and religious and legal conditions on the other. That, in turn, translates into the approach of museums to restitution claims, which are increasingly being put forward by representatives of indigenous peoples in connection with the return of the remains of their deceased ancestors. These claims find their legal basis in acts of international law and collective human rights. Therefore, the work answers the questions whether museums in Singapore duly respect international law in protecting human remains and the rights of indigenous peoples, and how this translates into reverence for this type of exhibits in museum practices in connection with ICOM regulations.

The Philippines during Rodrigo Duterte’s Rule: Rivalry between the United States and China

The rivalry of great powers between the United States and China embraces all regions of the world, including Southeast Asia and especially the Philippines. The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte (2016–2022) at the beginning of his presidency started to diminish the dependence of the country on former colonial power the US and to improve relations with China. Duterte hoped for the increase of economic cooperation and support of Beijing for modernization of infrastructures. Despite some successes in his policy, Duterte finally started to search again for support from the US. It was the result of extremely strong links and dependency between armed forces of Philippines and United States and generally very strong pro American filling of many Filipinos, the second reason was slowness of realization of some Chinese investments in the country, brutality and aggressiveness of Chinese coast guards towards Philippine fishers, and probably also some weakness in Chinese policy to the Philippines. Finally, Duterte obtained good results. The US confirmed readiness for military support in case of foreign aggression (especially in the South China Sea) and China was involved in political and economic cooperation with the Philippines.

Green China – a Dream or Not So Faraway Future? Review of Łukasz Gacek’s book Cywilizacja ekologiczna i transformacja energetyczna w Chinach

SPIS TREŚCI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WSTĘP

INTRODUCTION