Napredak

Geopolitics of Chaos and Geopolitical Vacuum

Ljubiša Despotović — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:17:05 +0200

The paper elaborates on the current geopolitical issues with potential far-reaching consequences for establishing the future order of power in international relations, as well as on the geopolitical powers themselves. The paper will analyze primarily the existing and potential crisis hotspots, as well as the changes occurring after US President Donald Trump came to power, and anticipations of potential results and consequences of the changes he initiated in his second presidential mandate. Moreover, attention will also be drawn to the analysis of the current position of large geopolitical powers with the already proven status of rivals, competitors and disputers of decades-long domination and hegemony of the Atlanticist West. In addition, we will try to answer the question about the possible end of the globalization era and the potential emergence of the post-globalization order.

Geopolitical concepts: definition and importance

Dušan Proroković — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:26:26 +0200

In practical terms, geopolitics is manifested through geopolitical concepts. These concepts are strategic perceptions based on geographical (socio-geographical and physical-geographical) and political indicators relevant for shaping certain goals. This paper explains the definition and importance of geopolitical concepts, as well as the necessary conditions for their legitimization. In that context, to understand certain geopolitical concepts (i.e., to understand the constants on which concepts are based), it is necessary to know the long-standing historical processes which also form collective strategic perceptions. Illegitimate geopolitical concepts cannot be successful, nor can they last in time, which is essentially opposite to the objectives of geopolitics. That is why a conclusion is imposed that successful geopolitics may not be based on any ad hoc actions, but they imply strategic deliberation, long-term planning and a multidisciplinary approach in ensuring interests of the state and the nation creating the state.

True Multilateralism: Conceptual Development, Core Essences, and China’s Practices

Chen Bo — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200

At present, the profound changes unseen in a century are intensifying globally, and global governance encounters a growing array of challenges. The international community needs to advance global governance through true multilateralism. Nevertheless, unilateralism and hegemonism are undermining multilateralism, which faces significant obstacles. China actively advocates and practices true multilateralism, a concept it has proposed, refined, and developed. The core principles of true multilateralism include upholding fairness and justice, maintaining openness and inclusiveness, adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, promoting extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and keeping pace with the times. China advances true multilateralism through concrete actions, such as nurturing the idea of a community with a shared future for mankind, safeguarding the UN system, enhancing multilateral mechanisms, providing high-quality international public goods, and promoting legal frameworks in global governance.

35 years from the fall of the Berlin Wall: consequences and modern tendencies

Aleksandar Gajić — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:29:22 +0200

The paper examines modern processes in Europe three and a half decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The time distance offers more favourable conditions for perceiving the Berlin wall and its role, as well as the causes of the fall of real socialism and the ensuing processes by using the historical and comparative method, and also the synthetic-analytical method. The paper is divided into three segments: the first one deals with the demystification of the Berlin Wall and its historical role from the time of its construction to its destruction; the second segment deals with the analysis of direct and long-term consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall, while the third one is dedicated to the forms of changes and their tendencies in Europe. The conclusion of the paper synthetizes the findings from all three chapters and gives a critical review of today’s state of affairs on the European continent.

Reviving the Monroe Doctrine – Trump’s Campaign for Panama, Canada and Greenland

Rajko Petrović — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:58:00 +0200

The research subject in this paper is the foreign policy of the newly-appointed US president Donald Trump in relation to the parts of the Western Hemisphere – primarily Panama, Canada and Greenland, openly claiming them for the United States of America. The starting hypothesis is that Donald Trump wants to revive the Monroe Doctrine formulated as early as 1823 and stipulating that the United States should be the indisputable master of the Western Hemisphere. The research results show that, despite Donald Trump’s pompous announcements that he would expand the territory of his country during the first six months of his mandate, no significant steps were taken in that direction. In the research, the historical method, the analysis method and the case study method were applied.

International cooperation in disaster risk reduction in the region of South Eastern Europe

Želimir Kešetović — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:06:35 +0200

Different kinds of natural and anthropogenic disasters are increasingly numerous in modern “risk society”, while their consequences are larger and larger, often exceeding the possibilities of responding to them not only at the local, but also at the national level. All this calls for various forms of international cooperation in disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Apart from global organizations, an important role in disaster risk reduction is also played by institutional organizational forms in the EU and some of its regions. In the region of South Eastern Europe, generally prone to crises, there is only one regional initiative – Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative (DPPI) and International Sava River Basin Commission (Sava Commission). It is certainly both necessary and possible to improve the existing institutional arrangements and to devise other ones to raise the capacities of these countries for disaster risk management.

Geopolitical features of the position of Serbia and Serbian nation in modern international relations

Vanja Glišin — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 14:51:00 +0200

In this paper, the author analyzes geopolitical features of the position of Serbia and Serbian nation in the context of current international circumstances, with a focus on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Geopolitical features which will be the subject of the analysis are: knottiness, borderliness and fragmentation, since these are the paradigmatic features of the Balkan territory. Having this in mind, in this paper we will define the above-listed features so as to be able to analyze them further in the given contexts. We will analyze in particular how the former and the latter affect the conflict and, accordingly, make a synthesis and show how their consequences are reflected on the position of Serbia and Serbian nation. In addition to the description, analysis and synthesis methods, we will also use the geopolitical method for the purpose of understanding a strong cause-and-effect relationship between the political and the spatial in the current context. It is assumed that the ongoing conflicts complicate the geopolitical features of the position of Serbia and Serbian nation and aggravate the international position between the East and the West.

Military force mobility as a challenge for the European Union in the field of defence

Vladan Stanić — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:20:39 +0200

The paper analyzes the triggers for the consideration and the extent to which the European Union has improved military force mobility in Europe. Military force mobility ensures efficient, timely and safe transport and deployment of military staff, weapons and equipment for the needs of conducting missions, operations, exercises or everyday activities. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict pointed to an urgent need of substantially improving military force mobility within and outside the European Union through the realization of projects related to military mobility and through the development of the dual-purpose transport infrastructure within the trans-European transport network. Free movement of military forces in Europe, without any obstacles, is the question of strategic importance both for the EU and the NATO. However, it has been concluded that the current state of traffic communications is not at the satisfactory level and, according, the EU (and the NATO) undertake comprehensive measures to create conditions for completely unobstructed movement of their own military forces. The conclusions in this paper have been drawn mainly by the use of the analysis method and the comparative method. The data were collected by the qualitative content analysis of the relevant documents and statements, while the presentation is mostly chronological. In disciplinary terms, the paper is founded on science of international relations, chiefly on the foreign policy analysis.

Art, science and politics

Dragan Jakovljević — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:28:03 +0200

When history falls silent, geopolitics starts speaking

Ana Jevtović — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:39:41 +0200