- Author:
Joachim Diec
- E-mail:
iriew.uj@interia.eu
- Institution:
Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Poland
- Year of publication:
2017
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
79-91
- DOI Address:
http://dx.doi.org/10.15804/npw2017105
- PDF:
npw/12/npw2017105.pdf
The essence of Russia’s relations with Belarus after the end of the 20th century boils down to a specific kind of balance. Thanks to its presence in the institutional forms of close cooperation such as the CSTO, the Union State or the Eurasian Economic Union Minsk enjoys the openness of Russian market and very low prices of imported resources (especially crude oil and gas). What Moscow receives in return can be classified as a sort of intangible goods: greater prestige and a „friendly hegemonic” position in international relations. The balance of the game falls in favor of Lukashenko who takes advantage of his country’s location between the Russian Federation and the EU: Moscow is permanently blackmailed with the possibility of Minsk’s hypothetical turn toward the Western partners.
- Author:
Anna Wierzchowska
- Institution:
University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4340-9418
- Year of publication:
2021
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
211-228
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/athena.2021.72.12
- PDF:
apsp/72/apsp7212.pdf
The current study assumes that the notion of sustainable development, typical for the discourse on environmental protection, can be also applied to political research and indicates that institutions play a very important role in the process of creating and maintaining the balance of the political system, the aim of which is to build sustainable relations between different participants in its space. The European Union, which seems to feature characteristics of a hybrid organization and displays strong tendency to increase complexity, is examined. The EU institutions have a very important and often difficult role to play in sustaining intergovernmental and supranational influence and therefore often find themselves in contradictory situations. The intersecting efforts to deepen integration and at the same time the need to protect sovereignty do not allow for straightforward achievement of sustainable development of the integration system. Therefore, a distinctive feature of this system is the maintaining of sustainability rather than the actual achievement of sustainable development.