Rubrics » Bridging News
The European Union’s New Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024 and the Economic and Monetary Union
The future of Europe is the major concern of the European institutions, mainly in the context of increasing nationalism and populism around the continent that culminated in Brexit. Long debates and many comments were had, but not so many new ideas. The problems with which our continent is struggling are not new and the quest for pragmatic solution is not at an end. More
The Market Liberalization of Space Odysseys
Towards the end of 2019, a software issue during launch meant that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was unable to perform its first mission to supply the International Space Station as intended. It might by counted as merely one of the many problems often faced in cosmic exploration, yet this one was of particular interest because the spacecraft was created and operated by Boeing, a private business, as opposed to a public body such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such as we have been widely acquainted to. In fact, NASA abandoned the manned spacecraft program in 2011 (the space shuttle fleet), due to the high maintenance costs, as well as the significant and politically unpalatable dangers. Instead, what it has done since then has been to rent berths in Russian Soyuz spacecrafts or to encourage private businesses to come up with replacements. That is how SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corporation and United Launch Alliance jumped onto the bandwagon of a game that, for the better part of the last century, was played by governments moved by Cold War logic. More
The New Liliput’s Warlord
The Munich Conference of 1938 marked a turning point in World War II. Leading European politicians in Britain and France then succumbed to the demands of the Nazi regime in Germany, while offering them resources to engage in a possible war. After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in early 1938, the Sudetenland, which was inhabited mainly by ethnic Germans, was added to its territorial claims. The pretext for the desire to annex this region was the “reunion of Germans”. The annexation would have been even more likely, as the people of the Sudetenland had the same desire for unification. But, being in the minority in the Czechoslovak state, they were not the only decision-makers in this matter. More
The Road to Sibiu, the Road to Wisdom
2018 found Romania celebrating a century of nation-state unity. 2019 finds Romania as the home of the European unity. A freely and firmly committed community of nations is one of the most delicate enterprises of mankind, one that up to now no empire has succeeded in preserving. The nation seemed the ultimate aggregate. But ration is the ultimate aggregator. More
The Future of Cars: Reinventing Transportation
The automobile industry’s cycle-race to embrace electric and autonomous vehicles did not include all its factories and workers. Neither did softening global auto sales help the market situation. And a change in the downward slope of the number of available job positions is unlikely, with Bloomberg predicting at least 80,000 more automobile jobs to be cut in the coming years. Still, what is certain is that the disruptive future of transportation has already hit the road. More
Semiconductors – the “Future Currency” for Development
“Semiconductors became as scarce as gold”. As weird this phrase it may look at first glance, it is actually a reality. And it may be a very grim reality if the demand rate will continue to be way higher than supply. These small electronic components are vital for manufacturing electronic devices and, by extension, for a very broad spectrum of common and industrial goods. Practically, modern humans depend on devices that run on electrical power, and almost all of these depend on semiconductors, chips and other tiny parts. In a way, even if it is not so evident, and even if we are so reluctant to admit it openly, contemporary human society has become deeply dependent on electronics. More
Obelix Runs Away from Fiscalix
The “fear” of taxation dies hard. In 2013, Gerard Depardieu became a French “tax refugee” in the Russian Federation. Half a decade since then, he became a Russian tax debtor in the Russian Federation. In 2018, he was listed in Russia’s Federal Court Marshals Service database as owing taxes in Saransk (the capital of Mordovia, somewhere in “Yevropeyskaya Rossiya”), where he was registered. More
Europe after Brexit: Isolating the Continent
The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union remains undoubtedly the event of the year 2020. From a technical, procedural and institutional point of view, it was an impeccable, flawless process, according to the provisions of the existing EU regulatory framework, even if it took place after a difficult journey over three years from the date of the British referendum in 2016. Historically, the event does not deviate from the British pragmatic-action note – from the epistemic point of view, it can be explained in the margin of the neorealist paradigm, and, from the emotional point of view, it raises interest only from the perspective of its media exploitation. More
The “Czar” and the Sankt…ions
Judging by recent events, we may be witnessing the last days of the conventional war as we know it. Although conventional weapons are still an asset of the great military powers, we have recently seen a shift from physical, tangible military techniques, with troop movements and defensive positioning, to less immediately visible practices such as cyber-attacks, fake news or misinformation with the role of destabilizing the rival nation. Here we can also discuss the issue of economic sanctions, the most recent targeting the Russian Federation following the invasion of Ukraine. Are we entering a new era in which military leaders will be trained in finance and trade and not in the martial field? More
Nord Stream 2. Implications for the Eastern Neighborhood
Nord Stream 2, perhaps the most controversial extant gas infrastructure project, not only has divided the European Union in supporters and opponents of the project but is also shaping the transatlantic relation while directly impacting the Eastern Neighborhood of the EU. Supported by a Germany that insists on the economic viability and capacity to improve EU’s energy security the project is maybe the most politicized project. Central and Eastern Europe led by Poland and the Baltic States have a limited timeframe until the project’s construction is finished to negotiate their strategic interests and, together with the rest of the European opponents of Nord Stream 2, to consolidate the EU’s energy priorities. The repeated gas crisis in the Ukraine and the recent events such as the Kerch Straight incident polarized the regional and international agenda to an even greater extent and highlighted the security dimension of the project. More
A Leaflet for Economics?
It may be rightfully supposed that the first few months of higher education represent a turning point for most people. It is undoubtedly of a great importance that people take the decision of wholeheartedly stepping into a new environment and make the best use of it. In truth, contact with academia offers new perspectives to young peoples. This is not necessarily about a life turnaround, but more about a novelty represented by a field of activity which people had not been familiar with before, for the "newcomers" have just passed over the threshold between the "playground" of adolescence and the official domain of maturity. More
Address of the Scientific Community of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv to the Partners and Friends in the World Scientific Community
Dear Friends, On February, 24, 2022, Ukraine and its people faced an act of the aggression by the Russian Federation. For mostly a month Ukraine is suffering from brutal, open and large-scale aggression and terror by the Russian Federation in our territory. Aggressor’s troops attack Ukraine’s cities; civilian population, houses, kindergartens, schools, universities are under shelling. These actions are absolutely unacceptable in the 21st century and have already endangered the existence of the democratic world. A lot of our academicians went to the West to save their kids and aged relatives. These are women-scientists as men are forbidden to go out of the state during the war period. The European Union and mostly entire world are supporting those who are struggling to leave their homes and went abroad to save their lives. There are a lot of study programmes and options for our students, PhD students, there are work temporary options for staff and researchers. More
