Defense of human rights and the humanitarian crisis at the border of Venezuela and Colombia from the United States policy perspective

The aim of the article is to present the U.S. policy towards the situation on the border between Venezuela and Colombia in recent years. The main reason for the U.S. involvement was the humanitarian crisis in that area. The causes of the migrant crisis include the Maduro regime's curtailment of democracy, the sharp drop in oil prices and demand on international markets, and the popular revolt. One of the consequences, besides the obvious, humanitarian ones, unfavorable from the perspective of international security and U.S. interests, is the attempt to destabilize the situation in Colombia and undermine its role in the inter-American world. Colombia is a traditional and loyal U.S. ally in the region. Apart from humanitarian considerations from the perspective of U.S. interests, its activity is dictated by economic, political and strategic reasons related to regional security

"Security, Inc." : privatising internal security in post-Communist Poland

The question of how and when authority diminishes in states has been a persistent feature of international relations and the political sciences for several decades. The issue is often referred to as ‘governance without a government’ and tries to understand systems of thick and thin sovereignty. This work adds to the literature – pertaining to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and Poland more specifically – by providing some basic definition-rooted problems such as the public-private distinction and the modes of privatisation in various sectors in post-communist countries. Also, respective legislative activities and oversight procedures are focused on in order to understand the liberalisation of the security market in Poland. Finally, the empirical analysis conducted here reveals some reasons for private security sector’s success. This work highlights the following: the massive expansion of private ownership and the inability of state authorities to secure it effectively, technological advancements and the availability of critical resources (people and information). In conclusion, it is assumed that the post-communist environment is especially favourable to the private security industry. This work seeks to explain how via the Poland case

Stany Zjednoczone i Unia Europejska jako promotorzy reform demokratycznych w państwach Bliskiego Wschodu i Afryki Północnej w pierwszej dekadzie XXI wieku

MENA is a very important region in US and EU foreign policy. Since the beginning of the 1990s, one of the crucial aspects of political involvement has been promoting democracy in the MENA region. This article presents and compares US and EU programs supporting the efforts to expand democracy in MENA countries. The main US initiatives are the following: United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Human Rights and Democracy Fund, Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), The Greater Middle East Initiative as well as Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENAI). The EU’s programmes are: European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and European Neighbour Policy. Both actors use similar methods but they have different approaches to achieve the goals of these initiatives.Zarówno Stany Zjednoczone, jak i Unia Europejska prowadzą aktywną politykę wobec państw Bliskiego Wschodu i Afryki Północnej. Od początku lat 90. XX wieku jednym z istotnych elementów działań politycznych tych dwóch ważnych aktorów sceny międzynarodowej są inicjatywy, mające na celu wspieranie procesów demokratyzacyjnych. Unia Europejska i Stany Zjednoczone są autorami szeregu programów polityczno-gospodarczych, których beneficjentami są państwa regionu. W artykule przeanalizowano i porównano najważniejsze programy autorstwa Stanów Zjednoczonych [United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Human Rights and Democracy Fund, Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), The Greater Middle East Initiative oraz Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENAI)] i Unii Europejskiej [Europejska Inicjatywa na Rzecz Demokracji i Praw Człowieka (od 2007 roku Europejski Instrument na Rzecz Demokracji i Praw Człowieka), Partnerstwo Eurośródziemnomorskie oraz Europejska Polityka Sąsiedztwa]

American Foreign Policy towards Peru at the turn of the 20th and 21st Century

Peru jest jednym z krajów subregionu andyjskiego, wobec którego współczesne Stany Zjednoczone prowadzą ożywioną politykę z kilku powodów. Zasadniczą płaszczyzną współpracy jest wspieranie przez kolejne administracje amerykańskie władz peruwiańskich w walce z przestępcami narkotykowymi. Peru jest jednym z większych dostawców kokainy na rynek amerykański. Drugim celem amerykańskiej polityki wobec Peru jest wspieranie przemian politycznych i działanie na rzecz rozwoju demokracji, której stan budził poważne obawy po 1993 roku. Ówczesny prezydent Alberto Fujimori łamiąc procedury demokratyczne skumulował władzę w swoich rękach. Postępowanie Fujimoriego budziło poważne obawy wśród decydentów amerykańskich. Trzeci obszar zainteresowania Peru ze strony Waszyngtonu dotyczy stosunków gospodarczych, od uczestnictwa Peru w programie ATPA do zawarcia w 2006 roku bilateralnej umowy o wolny handlu. Od początku XXI wieku wobec Peru coraz aktywniejszą politykę prowadzą Chiny, Unia Europejska oraz Rosja. W celu zabezpieczenia interesów geostrategicznych w przyszłości, obecność amerykańskich inwestorów na rynku peruwiańskim jest istotna.Peru is one of the Andean countries. There are three main goals of the American foreign policy towards Peru nowadays: one of the main is supporting governments in Lima in fighting against narcoterrorism. From American point of view this reason of its policy is very important because Peru is one of the biggest producers of top quality cocaine. Most of the Peruvian cocaine goes to the American consumers. The second one is promoting democracy in Peru. In 1990 when Alberto Fujimori won the presidential elections George Bush’s administration welcomed the results with hope. Unfortunately, since 1992-1993, president Fujimori had started to fight against opposition and the democracy had been limited. The last one goal is encouraging Peru for free market reforms by American economic initiatives like Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). Worth saying is Peru as a first country from the Andean Region signed bilateral free trade agreement with United States in 2006. Since the beginning of the 21st century China, European Union and Russia are also interested in rivalry for the market. The winner of this compete will keep control of the Peruvian market of minerals and from the political, economic and strategic point of view will be stronger in the future

Together against contemporary Russian imperialism : the role of Poland in the US security strategy

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie stanu współpracy między Polską a Stanami Zjednoczonymi na przestrzeni ostatnich kilku lat. Od początku lat 90. współpraca polsko-amerykańska odbywa się w kilku obszarach: wojskowym, politycznym i gospodarczym. Bliskie relacje sojusznicze między tymi partnerami są kluczowe dla utrzymania architektury bezpieczeństwa w Europie Środkowej i przeciwdziałania imperialnej polityce Rosji. Intensyfikacja współpracy w obszarach wojskowym, politycznym i gospodarczym nastąpiła po 2015 roku i zmianach politycznych w Polsce. Kolejnym impulsem do zacieśnienia współpracy była agresja Rosji na Ukrainę, która rozpoczęła się w lutym 2022 roku.The purpose of this article is to present the state of cooperation between Poland and the United States over the past few years. Since the early 1990s, Polish-American cooperation has been taking place in several areas: military, political and economic. Close alliance relations between these partners are crucial to maintaining the security architecture in Central Europe and countering Russia's imperial policies. Cooperation in the military, political and economic areas came was intensifi ed after 2015 and was a result of political changes in Poland. Another impetus for increased cooperation was Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which began in February 2022

Redes neuronales y ciencia política : probando las fronteras metodológicas

In recent years, a number of significant methodological re-evaluations have taken place in various disciplines of science due to machine learning developments. This is particularly evident in STEM disciplines, while the behavioral and social sciences seem to approach these phenomena with some reserve. A good example is the use of artificial neural networks. Yet, acknowledging their characteristics, it can be safely assumed that they are relatively well designed to solve many problems in political science. This is due to the nature of many social phenomena that are characterized by at least three features: (1) their theoretical basis is not ultimately determined, (2) they lack fully recognized functional relations, and (3) they are described by data that occur in a form that may be cumbersome for traditional modeling. Therefore, the article proceeds with some encouragement for the use of neural networks. At the same time, however, we need to proceed with caution. To mitigate possible opacity, a new political science-informed conceptualization of neural networks categorization scheme is proposed. This aims to help social scientists come to terms with one of the exponentially developing methods in the machine learning toolbo

Between incrementalism and punctuated equilibrium : the case of budget in Poland, 1995-2018

Incrementalism and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) have secured their standing in public policy research when studying change in budgetary data. On the other hand, however, new empirical evidence is constantly developed to confront it with theoretical assumptions. In line with the above, the aim of the paper is threefold. First, it is examined if budgetary outlays in Poland follow either incrementalism or PET’s core premises. Second, the paper aims at facilitating discussion on identifying punctuations. It is claimed that any cut-off point should be data-driven, category-responsive, and generalizable across different types of outliers. And third, it is investigated which of the budget categories have the most punctuations. Methodologically, the study is based on descriptive and distributional statistics provided to tackle the above two issues comprehensively. Consequently, the paper aims at filling the gap in theory-driven literature on Polish budget shifts and their empirical rigorous explanations. Thus, it is claimed that the Polish case study contributes to the debate on the verification of empirical research on public policy agendas and public policy change

Presidential power in foreign policy and military interventions : case study of the selected examples, 1958-present

A common knowledge shapes our perception of the world and forms our understanding of political phenomena. And almost everyone could agree with the argument that circumstances influence politics. The ebbs and flows in influence, power, prerogatives, performance, and activity of many political actors are an effect of changes in the world outside of them. But one may reasonably argue: what is the cause and what is the result? Is it really true the circumstances evidently, clearly have an effect on e.g. US presidential prerogatives? Or, quite contrary, is the actual, current politics as active as the presidents used their power? The article is about how the two worlds infl uence each other, what are the mutual connections between politics and political actors’ powers