De Facto States and Democracy: The Case of Abkhazia

De-facto states constitute an interesting and important anomaly in the international system of sovereign states. No matter how successful and efficient in the administration of their territories they are, they fail to achieve international recognition. In the past, their claims for independence were based primarily on the right to national self-determination, historical continuity and claim for a remedial right to secession, based on alleged human-rights violations. Since 2005, official representatives of several de facto states have repeatedly emphasised the importance of democracy promotion in their political entities. A possible explanation of this phenomenon dwells in the belief that those states which have demonstrated their economic viability and promote the organization of a democratic state should gain their sovereignty. This article demonstrates the so called "democracy-for-recognition strategy" in the case study of Abkhazia. On the basis of the field research in Abkhazia we identify factors that promote, as well as those that obstruct the democratisation process in the country.

Tree-ring width and variation of wood density in Fraxinus excelsior L. and Quercus robur L. growing in floodplain forests

Oven-dry wood density variations are reported for European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) and English oak (Quercus robur L.) trees growing in floodplain mixed forests in South Moravia, Czech Republic. Two sites with different water regime conditions were selected along the Dyje (site A) and the Morava (site B) Rivers. In total, 20 dominant, healthy trees were chosen to determine the tree-ring structure and the oven-dry wood density (ρ0) along the radius of the stem cross section. The tree-ring width followed the common trend of a general decline as the trees aged. After removing the age influence, significant differences were observed in the tree-ring structure, recorded several years after water regime treatments. The European ash and the English oak ρ0 were found to be 677.3 kgBULLET OPERATORm-3 and 618.2 kgBULLET OPERATORm-3, respectively, significantly differing between the sites, for both species. High variability of ρ0 was also noticed along the stem radius in both species and sites.O

Conditions of Democratization in De-facto States: Case Study of Abkhazia

De-facto states constitute an interesting anomaly in the international system of sovereign states. No matter how long their control of claimed territory has lasted or how effective their capacities to provide governmental services to its population are, they fail to achieve international recognition. A change in the legitimising strategy adopted by the leaders of de-facto states came with the recognition of Kosovo’s independence by most western powers. In the past, their claims to independence were based primarily on the right to national self-determination, historical continuity and claim to a remedial right to secession, based on alleged human-rights violations. Increasingly, though, these arguments have been supplemented by an emphasis on “democratisation-for-recognition-strategy”. According to this strategy, those states that proved their viability as democratic states should earn their sovereignty. The aim of this article is to demonstrate this strategy on an instrumental case study of Abkhazia. As a result of the study of secondary literature on the topic of de-facto states democratization, supported with field research in Abkhazia, we try to identify those factors which are promoting and on the other hand obstructing a democratization process in such a de-facto state

Štramberk - významné středisko cestovního ruchu

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Postsovětský prostor po dvacetiletech

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Validita internetových zdroj v politické geografii

This paper focuses on the issue of Internet resources and thier validity rating (findind data about the author, server, sources etc.). So called Fribourg criteria and experience with validity of Internet sources in medical science are mentioned and discussed

Využití NC techniky při obrábění rotačních součástí v s. p. ROMO

Prezenční346 - Katedra obrábění a montážeNeuveden

Indické geopolitické myšlení

Since its independence in 1948, India has strived to become a major geopolitical power in South Asia, and an important player in the world. Early on, India achieved significant successes especially in the developing world. Failures caused by the lost war with China include, the rise of separatism and international isolation. After 1990, India gradually became an undisputed leader in South Asia but has since faced a number of important challenges. India is trying to consolidate its geopolitical position. The main goal of the article is to analyze Indian geopolitical thought, its sources, and relevance in Indian geopolitics.50752

Japonská geopolitika imperiálního období

This article analyses Japanese geopolitics of the imperial period by employing critical-geopolitical approaches to examine its formal and practical discursive levels. Its main objective is to explore classic Japanese geopolitical imagination juxtaposed to political (geo)propaganda, from the perspectives of space and their ideological origin. It starts by presenting selected autochthonous contexts and investigates how some Asian and non-Asian geopolitical ideas emerged in Japan. Afterwards, it turns to selected actors involved in the formal discourse, ranging from the academia to religious authorities, and confronts them with the practical discourse of political practice. A partial aim here is to localize some ideological elements supporting the classic geopolitical imagination and its role in legitimizing imperial ideologies. The analysis offers insights into the politization of spatial imagination in Japan of the imperial period. It is accompanied by a cartographic representation and an overview matrix of discursive actors.36438

Colour of tropical wood and discolouration due to simulated sunlight

This study investigated the wood surface discolouration due to simulated sunlight of three tropical woods native in South America. These woods are commonly used in the Czech Republic. Wood of jatoba (Hymenea courbaril L.), massaranduba (Manilkara bidentata A. Chev.) and tigerwood (Astronium graveolens Jacq.) was exposed to treatment by light of xenon-arc lamp, which simulates outdoor sunlight, for 144 hours. Colour measurements of exposed and non-exposed areas of samples were performed by means of spectrophotometer measuring in CIEL*a*b* colour system. The resulting wood discolouration was evaluated according to value of the overall colour change ∆E*. Changes of particular parameters (L*, a* and b*) were also observed during exposure. The wood surface darkened rapidly during the first hours of exposure to simulated sunlight, then samples showed only a slight increase in lightness. After 144 hours of sunlight irradiation the values of chromaticity coordinates were lower compared with the original surface. The initial variations in the lightness of different wood decreased to the minimum after exposure. The most distinctive discolouration of wood was found in the initially brightest wood tigerwood, the darkest massaranduba was affected the least