After Transnistria, the Suwalki Gap

This Guest Editorial appeared in multiple venues: The Commercial Dispatch, 26 April 2022 Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 28 April 2022 The Palm Beach Post, 28 April 2022 Magnolia Tribune, 29 April 2022 The Sun Sentinel, 7 May 202

The Elements of Water Balance in the Changing Climate in Poland

Strong global warming has been observed in the last three decades. Central Europe, including Poland, is not an exception. Moreover, climate projections for Poland foresee further warming as well as changes in the spatial and seasonal distribution and quantity of precipitation. However, climate models do not agree on the sign of change of precipitation. In Poland precipitation is projected to decrease in summer (this finding is not robust, being model-dependent) and to increase in winter. Therefore, there is still considerable uncertainty regarding likely climate change impacts on water resources in Poland. However, there is no doubt that changes in the thermal characteristics as well as in precipitation will influence changes in the water balance of the country. In this study, the components of climatic water balance, that is, precipitation, evaporation, and runoff, are calculated for the average conditions in the control period of 1961–1990 and in the future (2071–2100) in Poland. The changes of the water balance components for the present and for the future are compared and analysed. Due to insufficient consistency between climate models a possible range of changes should be presented; hence the multimodel projections from ENSEMBLES Project of the European Union are used in this study

The Aron Museum at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal

In 1953, when the Aron Museum at the Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal opened it was the first museum of Jewish ceremonial objects in Canada. In its early years, Rabbi Stern—in his vision of the collection, the Aron family as benefactors and the artist Sam Borenstein who helped to select the pieces, played significant roles in the development of the museum. This article explores the original description of the Aron Museum to show how the humanistic and aesthetic values attributed to the items followed the pattern of pre-Holocaust Jewish museums and exhibitions. For a variety of reasons the religious, ethnographic and historical interpretations of the ceremonial objects of the Aron Museum were initially minimized in its public display. Today, the provenance and memory associations of these objects as well as an explanation of Jewish rituals more fully express the multi-layered meaning of Jewish ceremonial art. Résumé Lorsque le musée Aron ouvrit ses portes en 1953, au temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom à Montréal, il était le premier musée d’objets cérémoniels juifs au Canada. Durant ses premières années d’existence, le rabbin Stern, avec sa conception de la collection, les membres de la famille Aron en tant que bienfaiteurs et l’artiste Sam Borenstein, qui contribua à sélectionner les objets, jouèrent des rôles significatifs dans son développement. Cet article explore la description originelle du musée Aron afin de montrer la manière dont les valeurs humanistes et esthétiques attribuées aux pièces exposées suivaient le schéma des musées et expositions juives d’avant l’Holocauste. Pour des raisons variées, les interprétations religieuses, ethnographiques et historiques des objets cérémoniels du musée Aron était initialement minimisées dans l’exposition publique. Aujourd’hui, la provenance et les associations mémorielles de ces objets, aussi bien que l’explication des rituels juifs, expriment plus pleinement la signification multi-niveaux de l’art cérémoniel juif

The Military-Geographical Significance of the Suwałki Gap

Dynamic changes in the security environment are forcing us to refl ect on the shape of the international order at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. Th e aggressive policy of the Russian Federation, which is confi rmed by the confl ict with Georgia in 2008 and the current situation in Ukraine, indicates that the use of military violence in the resolution of international disputes is not a historical category at all. Th is is of particular importance to the geopolitical location of the Republic of Poland. Th e length of our land border with the Russian Federation is 210 km, while with Belarus it is 418 km. Th e above fact has a fundamental impact not only on the public debate on the security of our country and the region, but also, and perhaps most importantly, on the shape of defence policy and the content of planning possible measures to prevent and counteract the escalation of prospective tensions in NATO-Russia relations. Both Russian military doctrine and the opinions expressed by politicians and specialists dealing with military issues and political and military experts indicate that, from the Russian perspective, the Baltic States’ membership of the North Atlantic Alliance and the presence of NATO troops on the territory of these countries, is highly unfavourable. Th erefore, there are grounds to believe that countries such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are treated by Russia as natural bridgeheads, convenient for bringing possible strikes against Russia. Th erefore, it is possible that blocking communication routes leading to these countries, while cutting them off from the support of allied land forces, may prove to be a key success factor in the situation of a hypothetical armed confl ict, aimed not only at depriving these countries of their sovereignty, but also aimed at discrediting the power of the Alliance

THE CHANGING POLISH FOOD CONSUMER

This paper provides an overview of major demographic and food trends in Poland and the rapid changes in Polish food retailing. The demographic changes include the size of the population; birth, death, marriage and divorce rates; the age distribution, education and household types. Two important demographic factors that will affect food consumption are the aging population and the major gap in education between urban and rural areas. In the next 20 years, the number of children will decrease radically, whereas the number of people over 64 years of age will rise significantly. Education levels are much lower in rural than in urban areas. The average household budget share for food was 44.6% in 1988. It reached 55.3% in 1990 at the beginning of the transition to a market economy and fell to 37.8% in 1996. Under central planning, consumers had to adjust to what was made available. There was a limited assortment of goods and many people relied on home-produced food. Since 1989 and the transition to a market economy, food consumption patterns have undergone some substantial changes. Butter consumption has fallen sharply, while plant fat consumption has increased with the introduction of high quality margarine. The change from central planning to a market economy has had a major impact on food retailing. U.S. fast food companies, such as McDonald's, have opened numerous outlets in Poland during the 1990s. Fast food is very popular, especially among young Poles. Under central planning, three government-owned chains dominated grocery retailing in Poland. The food marketing system was producer, not consumer driven. When the right to own private businesses was restored, many new food retailing stores were opened. In 1996, final sales by food retailing stores in Poland were about $100 billion. A large portion of the sales is by small shops. However, foreign-owned grocery retailers have been expanding in Poland and had sales of$5 billion in 1997. The foreign-owned chains open larger stores, supermarkets and even hypermarkets. Many of the major Western European food retailers are now operating in Poland, such as Ahold, a big Dutch company, and Tengelman, a large German company.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Codes of Good Agricultural Practices for Crop Production in Poland

The economic and social background of Polish agriculture provides the basis for this discussion of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). A primary goal of Polish agricultural policy is securing food self-sufficiency for the nation. Accomplishing this goal will require both an intensification of agricultural production in some areas and a concern for environmental protection. Numerous tables and figures illustrate land utilization, soil composition, farm size, and other features of Polish agriculture

Military signaling & geopolitical instability: a critical geopolitics view of the NATO-Russia exercise dynamic in the Baltic Sea

The aim of this study is to analyze how military signaling can impact geopolitical instability. I explore this issue through a case study of the NATO-Russia military exercise dynamic in the Baltic Sea region using a critical geopolitics perspective. Currently, NATO-Russia relations find themselves in grave decline for NATO members and Russia possess inherently different viewpoints about the European security order. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its actions in eastern Ukraine among other events, NATO members and Russia ramped up their military activity in the Baltic Sea under the guise of deterrence. This study finds that instead of contributing to regional stability, the NATO-Russia military exercise dynamic can be considered a factor of geopolitical instability in the region. Essentially, NATO finds itself in a conundrum where it must assure its most vulnerable members even though geography is not on its side, therefore it must reassure its allies, rehearse interoperability, and deter Russia. NATO’s balancing act affects how Russia perceives its exercises. In contrast, Russia does not see NATO’s military exercises as a deterrent but as provocations and at times responds with low level provocations of its own.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5504758*es

"The Local Geographic Origins of Russian-Jewish Immigrants, Circa 1900"

This working paper concerns the local origins of Russian-Jewish immigrants to the United States, circa 1900. New evidence is drawn from a large random sample of Russian-Jewish immigrant arrivals in the United States. It provides information on origins not merely by large regions, or even by the provinces of the Pale of Settlement (where nearly all Russian Jews lived), some 25 in number; rather, most analysis is conducted in terms of some 230 districts that made up the administrative subdivisions of provinces. The sample evidence is coordinated with district-level data from the detailed publications of the 1897 Census of the Russian Empire. Finally, all of this evidence has been entered into digitized maps.

Kaliningrad and the Lithuanian “geopolitical code"

The paper analyses the evolving role of Kaliningrad in shaping Lithuania‟s security perceptions vis-à-vis Russia. Applying the framework of the “geopolitical code” designed by Flint, the authors question whether the exclave-enclave nexus in the Kaliningrad region ‒ after the European Union (EU) and the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) enlargements ‒ has been a relevant change in context that has affected Vilnius' security perception of Moscow in its “geopolitical code”. The cooperative posture of Vilnius initialled in 1991 ‒ and later reinforced through the EU programmes ‒ tended to be based on achieving the country and EU‟s own stability and development, in a regional perspective, with no strategy to spill over on global relations with Moscow. Vilnius' understanding of Russian policies in Georgia and, mainly Ukraine, represented a change in context from 2008 onwards that brought a focus on military dimensions concerning the Oblast. This change was convergent with the same tendency in NATO. Membership in the EU and NATO has reinforced Lithuanian perceptions of Kaliningrad as a potential ally or enemy. At the bottom line, Vilnius‟ key decisions towards militarization in detriment of cooperation result from a continued negative security perception of Russia. Although cooperative engagement exists, it has not been able to become a feature of the relation due to the rationale of this cooperation. Kaliningrad influenced the “geopolitical code” of Lithuania concerning Russia but it did not play a decisive role in changing Vilnius' calculations on how to engage with Moscow.(undefined