“Being rich in energy resources – a blessing or a curse” finds that an energy resource curse plagues many EU supplier states. This in turn directly affects Europe’s energy supply security and threatens to engulf Europe in unwanted hostilities at home and abroad. The study addresses seven...

For decades, the OECD constituted an economic and political "club" of Western countries focused around the transatlantic axis. Today, it faces unprecedented challenges as the world economy shifts to the East and the South. In response, the OECD is undergoing meaningful reform: it is becoming...

Efforts aimed Romania convergence guidelines of its foreign policy with the Foreign Policy and Security Policy of the EU (CFSP). Negotiations on Chapter 27 - Foreign Policy and Security Policy (CFSP) were opened, along with the other four chapters, in the initial negotiation package (during the...

Each Member of the European Union (EU) has designed and perfected its own pension scheme as a necessary evolution of direct development taking into account the arguments that have led to such developments. Currently, due to these issues, not at all simple, in these states, there is a growing...

There is an adage about wealth and democracy that says “the more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances it will sustain democracy.” Accordingly, one would expect that nations rich in natural resources, and particularly those with large deposits of oil – a clear absolute advantage –...

Promising growth rates, increased trade, and competition among major global players for African resources have boosted the development and bargaining power of sub-Saharan Af-rica (SSA) in relation to the EU. However, Africa's least developed countries remain vulner-able to external shocks....

It is often claimed that what is popularly known as the "flying geese paradigm" of dynamic comparative advantage has accurately depicted the East Asian catching-up process. This paper presents a critical study of the paradigm, as well as its application to the current situation in East Asia...

Regime characteristics and their evolution have always been of interest of several disciplines. The difficulties that arise in measuring regime characteristics have been resolved to a large extent during the past three decades. In that, the POLITY IV project has generated a valuable source of...

There is no doubt that the Iranian leaders are feeling the heat on all fronts. On the nuclear front the negotiations have practically stagnated, which can be translated to no sanctions lifting and hence no relief for the severely ailing economy. On the Syrian front Tehran and Hezbollah of...

The South China Sea has attracted considerable attention among politicians, journalists and scholars since it has become a contested maritime space. Most works concentrate on conflicts and negotiations to resolve the ensuing issues. In this paper, a cultural theory will be applied to stress the...