Serbia has a new government: Hurrah or maybe not?

Everything as expected: after March’s landslide victory of the Progressive Party, Aleksandar Vučić has been sworn in as Prime Minister with 198 votes in favour and 23 against last Sunday, 27 April. One month on, are his walloping promises looking any nearer to fulfilment? “Vučić has rightly placed great emphasis on economic performance and reforms, but Serbia remains a place where political preference matters more than expertise”, argues Branislav Radeljić

Serbia’s Flood Prayers: Blame it on the LGBT Community

“The Serbian Orthodox Church’s decision to use a flood-inspired supplicatory prayer as an opportunity to undermine the LGBT community and the 2014 Belgrade Pride is scandalous and deserves serious criticism. Should the close relationship between Church and government fully consolidate, the status of the LGBT community will most likely remain ignored and threatened”, argues Branislav Radeljić

Storytelling del Covid-19: infermieri, pazienti e la forza del fine vita

Introduction: Personal stories accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic are of utmost relevance when considering policy adjustments and future improvements in the field of nursing. Methods: To gather data and offer a more detailed overview of the complexity of nurses’ responsibilities in times of a global health crisis, the method used is ethnographic research. Results: The paper demonstrates that the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, characterized by major uncertainties, has altered nurses’ daily routines to the extent that they have been exposed to additional sets of duties, as well as to higher levels of exhaustion and risks with potentially fatal consequences. Conclusion: Nurses’ narratives provide a valuable input to the debate on their own status, as well as on the state of healthcare. The paper extends the current knowledge and contributes to wider discussions about nursing and our society’s ability to handle outbreaks of large-scale health crises. Keywords: Covid-19, Death, Healthcare, Loneliness, Nurse–patient relationshipIntroduzione: Le storie personali che accompagnano la pandemia COVID-19 sono di estrema rilevanza quando si considerano gli aggiustamenti delle politiche e i miglioramenti futuri nel campo dell’assistenza. Metodo: Al fine di raccogliere dati e offrire una panoramica più dettagliata della complessità delle responsabilità degli infermieri in tempi di crisi sanitaria globale, abbiamo optato per una ricerca etnografica. Risultati: In tal senso, l’articolo dimostra che la natura della pandemia COVID-19, caratterizzata da grandi incertezze, ha alterato la routine quotidiana degli infermieri nella misura in cui sono stati esposti a ulteriori serie di doveri, così come a livelli più elevati di esaurimento e rischi con conseguenze potenzialmente fatali. Conclusioni: Le narrazioni forniscono un prezioso contributo al dibattito sulla condizione degli operatori stessi, così come sullo stato dell’assistenza sanitaria. L’articolo estende le conoscenze attuali e contribuisce a discussioni più ampie sul nursing e sulla capacità della nostra società di gestire crisi sanitarie su larga scala. Parole Chiave: Covid-19, Morte, Assistenza sanitaria, Solitudine, Rapporto infermiere–pazient

Hypertrophy as NATO’s Masculinity: Out-of-Area Operations and Enlargements in the Post-Cold War Context

The Russian intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 has served as a catalyst or actualizer of a long-standing trend in NATO: that of justifying its existence by its geographical expansion. This is both in organic terms, through the incorporation of new states into its structure, and in operational terms, through the execution of so-called out-of-area operations, and the intensification of its rivalry with Russia. This dynamic, which has been firmly established since the mid-1990s, has been overridden by the growing contradictions between the interests of its members, the successive changes in US administrations, and the transformation of the international system, characterized by an inexorable trend toward multipolarity. Altogether, these factors explain the extent to which NATO is facing a definitive choice. Starting with the implications of the war in Ukraine for NATO, this article provides a historical analysis of this phenomenon, noting the vicissitudes of NATO’s enlargements and operations over the past thirty years, and how these activities have enabled the alliance to weather the successive internal crises it has faced. Ultimately, the authors argue that the war in Ukraine marks the end of this dynamic and of NATO’s masculinist dilemma either to limit its operations to the defense of its members (in line with the collective security clause enshrined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty) or to complete pending enlargement processes, thereby endangering international peace and security

The War in Ukraine and the EU's Geopolitical Role in Spanish Media Discourses

The EU's ability to protect common interests and effectively address the challenges faced by its members relating to external threats is one of the most debated questions in the European landscape. Understandably, the war in Ukraine has had a major impact on discourses regarding the EU Common Security and Defense Policy, granting them more space and thus visibility in the media and public debates. Our study examines Spanish media discourses about the EU’s geopolitical role and, more specifically, to what extent such discourses foster or hamper European integration processes. To collect data and carry out this study, we selected six media outlets based on their ownership, ideological stance, consumption frequency, and impact on public opinion. Our sample includes 540 news items, collected between July 2021 and March 2022. Our discourse analysis benefits from, inter alia, a Foucauldian framework that focuses on the sayable, conservation, memory, reactivation, and appropriation. In addition, we also identify communicative strategies that are employed to promote different discourses, as well as possible policy alternatives, concerning the EU’s geopolitical role and future prospects

Official Discrepancies: Kosovo Independence and Western European Rhetoric

This article examines approaches and official discrepancies characterising Western European rhetoric with regard to the Kosovo status question. Since the early 1980s, Kosovo has been increasingly present in European debates, culminating with the 1999 international intervention in the region and subsequent talks about its final status. Although the Kosovo Albanians proclaimed independence in February 2008 and the majority of EU Member States decided to recognise Kosovo as an independent state, Western European rhetoric has been rather divided. This article shows that in addition to five EU members who have decided not to recognise Kosovo from the very beginning, and thus are powerful enough to affect its further progress, both locally and internationally, some of the recognisers, although having abandoned the policy of ‘standards before status’, have also struggled to develop full support for the province – a discrepancy that surely questions the overall Western support for Kosovo’s independence

European Union Approaches to Human Rights Violations in Kosovo before and after Independence

This article examines European Union (EU) approaches to the question of human rights violations in Kosovo before and after its proclamation of independence, in February 2008. While the 1999 NATO-led humanitarian intervention in the region was often justified as necessary due to the continuous abuses of human rights, perpetrated by the Serbian forces against the ethic Kosovo Albanians, the post-interventionist period has witnessed a dramatic reversal of roles, with the rights of the remaining Serbian minority being regularly abused by the dominant Albanian population. However, in contrast to the former scenario, the Brussels administration has remained quite salient about the post-independence context – a grey zone of unviable political and social components, capable of generating new confrontations and human rights abuses within the borders of Kosovo. Aware of this dynamic and the existing EU official rhetoric, it is possible to conclude that the embedded human rights concerns in Kosovo are not likely to disappear, but even more importantly, their relevance has been significantly eroded

How do European Young Muslims View European Identity?

This paper examines the situation in the European Union where the growing presence of Muslim communities has already taken place. The initial understanding of the then European Economic Community as Christian Democratic, thus as Catholic, is no longer valid. In fact, from a social constructivist perspective, the presence of Muslims has posed a challenge and led to numerous debates relating to what has been promoted as European identity. Accordingly, this qualitative paper focuses on the coexistence of the two identities and questions to what extent young, EU-born, Muslims are ready to accept European identity, or, by contrast, continue to cultivate their own Muslim identity. The paper argues that the young Muslims can be divided into three different groups – traditionalists, neo-traditionalists and liberals, a division that is easily ignored by the society and, more importantly, policy makers, who consider only the first category when portraying Islam as a serious challenge to European identity. Conclusively, the paper notes that bigger efforts are needed on behalf of both the Europeans and the Muslims, efforts that will lead to successful co-existence and validate the EU’s cosmopolitan approach towards its otherness