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Having the South American Amazon as our spatial cut, this paper aims to discuss it as a space of physical, environmental and socioeconomic relevance to regional rearticulation, highlighting the issue of transport infrastructure and the importance of Brazil to boost this process in contemporary times. With the end of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in 2019, several of its councils were paralyzed and discontinued, such as the Infrastructure and Planning Council (Cosiplan), reflecting the abandonment of efforts built since the beginning of the 21st century. In addition, relations between national preferences and the indispensable search for development, and mechanisms of cooperation and regional integration, which are fundamental instruments to meet such demands, were stressed. In turn, a scenario of discredited institutions made room for greater action by multiple public and private, internal and increasingly international and multinational actors who, in a way disconnected from regional arrangements, directed infrastructure investments focusing on their own interests, resulting in expiation of the the socio-environmental vulnerability in the Amazonian territories. We argue that it is necessary to integrate to preserve and develop. Regional governance and institutionality are central pillars for the resumption of a more resilient South American integration process, aimed at protecting and developing the Amazon, in which Brazil has an important driving role to be exercised and a directive leadership to retrieve.

There have been new facets of multilateralism, which have motivated the realignment of traditional power relations established globally, especially regarding the United States and China. This new strategic environment can be observed in changes made to the Brazilian National Defense White Paper (LBDN) of 2020, as well as in the dialectic between white papers of the United States (2017), and China (2019). To investigate these realignments and their possible impacts on the Brazilian defense sector, the analysis was carried out in two phases: (1) analysis of the general characteristics of the Defense White Papers by the USA and China; and (2) comparison of discourses conveyed in chapters on international cooperation in each Defense White Paper. Speech patterns were analyzed according to rationales of Lexical Semantics and Critical Discourse Analysis. As a result, elements of semantic fields, intertextuality and modality in discourse were pointed out as parameters that could contribute to the evaluation of cooperation and deterrence/dissuasion actions to be adopted by the USA and China in the 21st century.

This paper argues that the teaching of art in Higher Educational Institutions is inherently paradoxical. Informed by the transgressive and interdisciplinary qualities of contemporary artistic practices, education nevertheless is often made to fit into a reductionist, outcome-oriented and individualistic discourse. Taking a weeklong workshop at the Nida Art Colony in Lithuania as a practical axis for its reflections on the fluid nature of art education, the paper discusses possibilities of extending beyond pedagogical, political, human/nonhuman and other borders and treating 'noise' and other 'interferences' as opportunities for transgression and dialogue. This workshop with students from the Vilnius Academy of Arts took place in September 2022, at a time characterised by the Russia-Ukraine war. Nida's proximity to Russia's exclave Kaliningrad, its location on the narrow Curonian Spit, and its immediate environment characterised by woods and sand dunes provide this paper with a setting for a discussion about a variety of borders: territorial borders, border pedagogies, perceived borders between human and nonhuman entities, between land and sea, and so on. Borders are described as dominant indicators of power and distinction, while educational standards and instruments of measurement often replicate similar distinctions between the known and the unfamiliar. Yet, borders can also be shifted while new connections and dialogues across real and conceptual borders can be forged in a porous process that is predisposed towards flexible scenarios characterised by the 'not-yet'. The surrounding forest and wetlands and huge drifting sand dunes in Nida become analogies for the changing structure of the workshop, silently yet overpoweringly advocating for a mutable pedagogy. Analysed through the work of various contemporary artists, this nonhuman intrusion into a pedagogical and creative experience is both undefined and vulnerable, unlike the preordained structures of attainment targets often associated with contemporary schooling.

Engineers make things, make things work, and make things work better and easier. This kind of knowledge is crucial for innovation, and much of the explicit knowledge developed by engineers is embodied in scientific publications. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of publications and citations in engineering in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Using a database of all Mexican publications in Web of Science from 2004 to 2017, we explore the characteristics of publications that tend to have the greatest impact; this is the highest number of citations. Among the variables studied are the type of collaboration (no collaboration, domestic, bilateral, or multilateral), the number of coauthors and countries, controlling for a coauthor from the USA, and the affiliation institution of the Mexican author(s). Our results emphasize the overall importance of joint international efforts and suggest that publications with the highest number of citations are those with multinational collaboration (coauthors from three or more countries) and when one of the coauthors is from the USA. Another interesting result is that single-authored papers have had a higher impact than those written through domestic collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model United Nations (MUN) has seen dramatic growth in Morocco, both at the university and high school levels. It is a popular and effective teaching tool. This paper aims to test its utility using various methodologies. It shares the results of surveys, both historic and current, conducted at Al Akhawayn University evaluating the activity among students. It also includes interviews with MUN participants, both coaches and students, at Al Akhawayn University and elsewhere. Finally, the paper evaluates whether the tool is trans-cultural or whether it is an expansion of White space.

This paper represents one of the most recent and pertinent studies conducted in Afghanistan, aiming to address the societal imperative of comprehending the factors behind the fall of the Republic government and the subsequent rise of the Taliban to power. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyse public attitudes towards the current situation. Employing a quantitative approach, the research utilizes a descriptive-analytical method through questionnaires and the participants include social media activist, students and universities professors, the data collected by online survey according WhatsApp, Facebook messengers, telegram, email and other social media groups from different ethnic groups. The findings of this research have identified several pivotal factors contributing to the ascent of the Taliban to power, including the US-Taliban agreement in Doha, Qatar; political disparities; administrative and financial corruption within the Republic's administration; Pakistan's support for the Taliban; the previous government's accord with the Taliban; ethnic dominance; robust military morale of the Taliban; and proficient war management by the Taliban. Afghanistan, as a multi-ethnic society, witnesses political dynamics predominantly rooted in ethnic affiliations. The majority of respondents express dissatisfaction with the current Afghan situation, displaying significant concerns for the populace. Foremost concerns, in terms of prioritization, encompass poverty; closure of girls' schools; restrictions on women's education and employment; escalation of civil unrest; mono-ethnic rule; ethnic conflicts; emergence of ISIS; ethnic marginalization; violations of citizenship rights; political participation and legitimacy crises; and authoritarianism. Consequently, to address the political crisis and establish a viable system, the research concludes that while Pashtuns lean toward a centralized system, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens evince greater interest in a decentralized structure.

Higher education consists of a wide array of education programs, some of which closely involve both domestic politics and issues that transcend national boundaries. This paper explores a controversial and highly contested higher education program that is shaped by a post-conflict affected context and transnational politics. Based on the case study of a new Vietnamese language studies program in Cambodia, the paper demonstrates that when post-conflict education and transnational politics intersect with one another in many ways, post-war higher education reconstruction becomes a platform where stakeholders such as youths and national and international governments contest and negotiate influence and change. By critically examining the relations between educational phenomena and historical, national, and geopolitical dynamics in a post-conflict environment, the paper discusses key factors of higher education reconstruction in the aftermath of social upheavals and mass atrocities. It also offers a fresh perspective on the multifaceted dynamics of a higher education program which involves public protests, state intervention, transnational disputes, and inter-state relations.

The article focuses on the importance of quantifying the impact and quality of research articles, discussing traditional metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), CiteScore, and the H-index. It also introduces alternative metrics (Altmetrics) like the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), emphasizing their role in measuring the reach and success of research articles through social media engagement.

The Western-style internationalisation of Russian universities, which guided the evolution of the country's higher education sector for over three decades, has been challenged by Western sanctions following the 2022 Russian 'Special military operation in Ukraine'. The authors show through the prism of constructivist theory how the norm on the internationalisation of higher education characterised by the strive for Westernised world-class universities was adopted and then came to unravel in Russia. A qualitative case study based on 42 expert interviews and an analysis of political discourse and legal documents reveals how the key features of the internationalisation of Russian universities are being challenged. The authors contribute to the expert literature the notion of 'norm reversal', defined as the process whereby an institutionalised and internalised international norm is 'cancelled' in a specific country. The paper shows that the reversal in Russian higher education, which was initially 'circumstantial' is becoming 'intentional', with legal documents being drawn up to accelerate and claim ownership of it.

This article explores the intertwinement of politics, international affairs and culture during the Cold War through a case study of Polish-Dutch cultural relations and the heterogeneous factors that shaped them. The study centres around the turbulent events of 1968 in Poland, and their impact on the international cultural policies of the Polish People's Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It demonstrates that the cultural field suffered the most immediate consequences of the political decisions taken by both parties – consequences which lasted for a considerable time – thus making it a metaphorical litmus test for the Cold War international relationships. This article reconstructs and analyses Polish and Dutch reactions to the 1968 events and their use of culture for the sake of their own policies – both as a form of protest and as an anti-crisis tool meant to influence the authorities and citizens of the target country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discussed the relationship between language, ecology, and culture, and claimed that the study of linguistic communication as pragmatics should not be confined to the traditional context, but should focus on a broader ecological environment. It analyzed the context of practical communication from the perspective of language ecology beginning with the discussion of the ecological crisis in communication and found that language, like plants and animals in nature, needed the support of the external environment with certain "soil fertility". This paper classified ecological context into two types: internal ecological context (psychological-cognitive context) and external ecological context (natural environment and social environment). Based on this classification, the ecological context of pragmatics was further divided into environment-friendly context, addressee-friendly context, and speaker-friendly ecological context. This paper was an exploratory analysis of language ecology in pragmatics, aiming at helping communicative participants find their ecological niche and adopt appropriate strategies to maintain the ecological balance in pragmatic communication.

Nguyen, O. T. H., Aksenov, I., Phan, N. T., & Sakulyeva, T. (2021). Russia's foreign policy priorities in the Asia‐Pacific region. Journal of Public Affairs, e2745. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2745. The above article, published online on 17 August 2021 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor‐in‐Chief, Laura Corazza and Shaista Wasiuzzaman and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed following concerns regarding manipulation of the peer review and publishing process. Concerns were originally raised by a third party (1). Further investigation by the publisher has found manipulation of the peer review process, and overlapping text with other publications. The retraction has been agreed because the peer review of the article was compromised and there is unattributed overlap between this article and several other articles (2)(3). Abalkina, A. (2022). Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: evidence from a Russia‐based paper mill https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.13322 Burdzik, T. (2019). Slowly but Surely: Russia's Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics‐and‐comments/columns/asian‐kaleidoscope/slowly‐but‐surely‐russia‐s‐foreign‐policy‐in‐southeast‐asia/?sphrase%5fid=34631795 Rumer, E., Sokolsky, R., Vladicic, A. (2020). Russia in the Asia‐Pacific: Less Than Meets the Eye https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/82614 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work would like to bring into the attention of readers various aspects associated with the process of doctoral research. For many of the students this can represent quite a challenging experience with an increased level of complexity. The author will show his experience while enrolled in this form of education. Main ideas are based on the factors identified while planning and writing the papers associated with the research journey. Most of the works belong to the themes of the doctoral school, like economics, financial system or international affairs. The sample of analysed papers contains several works covering the field of interdisciplinary research. This concept will be approached inside the literature review to familiarise the readers with its meaning. Content of this area includes elements from economics, financial system, international affairs and environment. Novelty of the paper is represented by the personal experience of the writer. He will show the challenges encountered while performing regular and interdisciplinary research, connecting particular notions from business process management and business process improvement. Lean Six Sigma methodology will be used to sustain specific elements of the analytical representation. Moreover, the author will provide an overview on the lessons learnt, hoping this will contribute to the decrease of the research process complexity level and support publication status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through activities such as institutional partnerships, scholarships, mobility and, most recently, offshore campuses and satellite offices, universities and their nations of origin have furthered their relationship with key-countries. This paper aims to understand what factors universities considered when choosing the host country of their satellite offices and possible interest in diplomacy. The exercise focused on the efforts of US universities in Brazil. It tested expressions of soft power versus internal elements of universities' administration to verify their significance. By checking the efforts of 131 US universities, this paper hints that non-academic elements, such as a country's foreign policy, were also statistically significant and must be taken into account when analysing universities' internationalisation strategies.

This paper discusses Finnish-Russian relations from the perspective of cooperation in higher education, and particularly Finnish-Russian double degree programmes prior to 2022. It asks how internal stakeholders, in double degree programmes perceived the role of their cooperation from the point of view of interstate relations, and how cooperation had changed (if at all) after the political crisis intensified between the EU and Russia in 2014. The paper draws on research on EU-Russia relations, and on the link between higher education (collaboration) and international politics. The empirical part of the paper is based on a case study of double degree programmes between Finnish and Russian universities. Semi-structured interviews with internal stakeholders such as administrative and academic heads/coordinators of these programmes serve as the main source of primary materials. The study reveals that even though internal stakeholders explicitly wanted to depoliticise higher education cooperation and denied that interstate (or EU-Russia) relations would have had any impact on their collaboration, many of them still hoped that HE cooperation would help in improving the given relations. Accordingly, they argued for education diplomacy in the sense of 'higher education for diplomacy', but denied it in the sense of 'diplomacy for higher education'.

In recent years the lawfulness of certain types of sanctions and the question about the usefulness of sanctions in general have become topical and widely discussed issues. Of special significance is the expanding use by powerful states of unilateral coercive measures without Security Council authorisation, or beyond Security Council authorisation, to illustrate their displeasure with the domestic or foreign policies of certain members of the international community. Over time the nature of these measures has taken on diverse forms and their encroachment on human rights and freedoms has become a matter of international concern. This contribution examines the developments that have taken place in this context since the 2000 report of the Working Group on the negative impact of sanctions by focussing on the interventions by key United Nations bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses faculty experiences tackling global knowledge asymmetries by examining the decolonisation of higher education in Africa in the aftermath of the 2015 'Rhodes Must Fall' student uprising. An overview of the literature reveals a rich debate on defining 'decolonisation', starting from a critique of Eurocentrism to propositions of alternate epistemologies. These debates are dominated by the Global North and South Africa and their experiences of curriculum reform. Our focus is on the experiences of political scientists in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. These countries share the same Anglophone political science traditions but represent different political trajectories that constitute a significant condition for the discipline. The 26 political scientists we interviewed acted toward increasing local content and perspectives in their teaching, as promoted in the official strategies of the universities. They noted that what was happening in lecture halls was most important. The academic decolonisation debate appeared overambitious or even as patronising to them in their own political context. National politics affected the thematic focus of the discipline both as far as research topics and students' employment opportunities were concerned. Although university bureaucracies were slow to respond to proposed curricula changes, new programmes were approved if there was a market-based demand for them. International programs tended to be approved fastest. Political economy of higher education plays a role: dependency on foreign funding, limited national resources to conduct research and produce publications vis-à-vis international competition, and national quality assurance standards appeared to be most critical constraints for decolonising the curriculum.

This paper pilots a method of testing the learning effects of a role-playing simulation of negotiations over the Nile basin. Players negotiate how to apply general principles from international law, such as sharing water equitably and avoiding significant harm, to specific circumstances of the river basin. Students are presented with a set of factual statements about the basin and surveyed before and after play as to which facts will be (were) most important in negotiations. Surveys of 75 participating graduate students show interesting patterns: (1) a shift from emphasis on managing risks to exploiting cooperative opportunities; (2) change in the value orientation of the statements students consider most important, with development-oriented values increasing and environment-oriented values decreasing; and (3) change in the dimensions of power students consider most salient, including an increased appreciation for the institutional and knowledge-related elements of power and a de-emphasis on the structural aspects of power. Before-and-after surveying offers an alternative to the more common methods of learning assessment, based on knowledge acquisition or student satisfaction, while discussion of the survey results with students allows for a richer, more reflective learning experience.

Active learning is an engaging way of teaching and even experienced professors may not know how to start implementing its techniques to make classes more dynamic. Teaching cases can be a very useful active method of instruction, as an opportunity to assign students roles in the case discussion, centering them as the protagonists of their own learning process. In other words, students will learn by doing, as they will be engaged in thinking and communicating on the topic. This paper presents a teaching case on the Brexit process to introduce central concepts of Putnam's Two-Level Game model, such as level of negotiations, chief negotiator, win-set, voluntary defection, involuntary defection, and ratification. We assessed learning with self-perception questionnaires before and after the activity. The results suggest the activity improved the understanding of all selected topics covered in class.

"Volatile States in International Politics" by Eleonora Mattiacci explores the increasing unpredictability of state behavior in world politics. The book combines statistical data and archival frames of reference to explain the concept of "volatility" in international politics, its causes, impact, and potential remedies. The author examines factors that contribute to interstate volatility, such as relative power and resource availability, and proposes novel methods for measuring volatility. The book also provides a detailed assessment of countries engaged in strategic rivalry and explores the prevalence of volatility in interactions between countries with defensive commitments. While the book emphasizes the importance of understanding volatility, it neglects the larger context of the security dilemma and the potential value of creative diplomacy in countering volatility. Overall, "Volatile States in International Politics" is a well-written and valuable introduction to the concept of volatility in international politics. [Extracted from the article]

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a leading cause of physical, emotional, and psychosocial problems around the world, with many countries in East Africa having rates above the global average. Despite the high prevalence in the region, service provision for post-SGBV care is often poorly funded, difficult to access, or simply nonexistent. This review reports the findings of a scoping review of literature from East Africa. The goals of this research were to evaluate existing service provision practices throughout the region, understand how provider bias may affect service provision, and compare existing practices to national policies and internationally agreed human rights treaties. This review identified 54 academic papers and reports through a search of electronic databases and grey literature sources, and four main themes emerged: (1) current models of service provision are inadequate to address the medical and psychosocial needs of survivors; (2) countries are not providing sufficient funding for services; (3) further research is needed into how to incorporate SGBV care into existing health systems and align with international human rights treaties; and (4) there is limited research in many countries in East Africa. The findings are likely to be of use to policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, and service providers working in the medical, legal, and justice systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since 1990, a large and dynamic global science system has evolved, based on grass roots collaboration, and resting on the resources, infrastructure and personnel housed by national science systems. Euro-American science systems have become intensively networked in a global duopoly; and many other countries have built national science systems, including a group of large- and middle-sized countries that follow semi-autonomous trajectories based on state investment, intensive national network building, and international engagement, without integrating tightly into the global duopoly. The dual global/national approach pursued by these systems, including China, South Korea, Iran and India, is not always fully understood in papers on science. Nevertheless, China is now the number two science country in the world, the largest producer of papers and number one in parts of STEM physical sciences. The paper investigates the remarkable evolution of China's science funding, output, discipline balance, internationalisation strategy and national and global networking. China has combined global activity and the local/national building of science in positive sum manner, on the ground of the nationally nested science system. The paper also discusses limits of the achievement, noting that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science, a partial decoupling is occurring and the future is unclear.

McKenna follows, citing Harper's overt politicization of the bureaucracy - what he calls "Fort Pearson", a "dark, nasty and mean-spirited period" in Canada's foreign relations (17). In the first sentence of I Harper's World i , editor Peter McKenna refers to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a "super-charged political animal.". [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce the extended qualitative content analysis (EQCA) method to integrate data-reducing and data-complicating research steps when conducting qualitative research on the United Nations and other international institutions. Design/methodology/approach: EQCA supplements the method of qualitative content analysis, which enables researchers to deal with large amounts of data, with two elements from grounded theory, which allow detailed analysis and interpretation of codes and sub-codes. The elements in question are axial coding and theoretical sampling. Findings: EQCA provides a method to generate middle-range theories by combining theoretical and empirical analysis to address and theorize the complex interactions between actors, structures and norms in international institutions. The value added by the proposed method is demonstrated with a case study of a United Nations intergovernmental working group in the issue area of business and human rights. Originality/value: Based on the concepts of interpretation and social causality, this paper contributes to the body of qualitative research that transcends the dichotomy between positivist and post-positivist approaches in the disciplines of international relations and international political theory.

Recent reports indicate that employers are increasingly interested in hiring individuals that can think critically and are able to solve complex problems. Further, the ability to apply knowledge learned during college to real-world settings is a major sought-after skill. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of teaching our students to think critically but also suggest the importance of including activities within our courses that promote the application of ideas. This paper presents research on short in-class activities to promote student learning in knowledge acquisition, application, and critical thinking. In particular, this paper considers the use of these activities in two different courses: Introduction to International Relations and American Foreign Policy. To assess student learning, this paper compares changes in student scores on these activities, as well as considers students' self-assessment of learning. The findings suggest that the use of these in-class assignments improves students' ability to define, apply, and analyze course concepts, and also increases student level of engagement.

This paper seeks to explore the aspects related to education and aspiration through the on-going experiences of Female Malay Muslim students in UK higher institutions. Building on an ethnographic approach, an in-depth interview with 30 female Malay students, I focus on the various aspects of the students' lives as scholarship holders, addressing in particular how they handle diplomatic practices in their everyday lives as Malaysian mini ambassadors overseas. The notions of aspiration, well-balanced citizenship and 'everyday diplomacy' are deployed in this research to understand the everyday experiences of these students. Hence, it is argued that the privileges in education policy for Bumiputera Malays have shaped the notion of achievement they hold and their attitude towards overseas education as well as their experiences abroad. My research suggests that being a mini diplomat means not only promoting the relationship between different cultures but also contributing to nations abroad through their volunteering work.

The current study explores and dissects the philosophical roots of neo-classical realism. The analysis aims to disclose the theoretical underpinnings of this framework that enable it to describe the state’s behavior. The analysis is based upon a comparative approach that helps to understand the complex synthesis scheme of the neo-classical realist framework. The neo-classical realism is based upon an extensive array of internal and external sets of variables that help to explain foreign policy actions. The bedrock of foreign policy behavior of a state is intricately woven from these interplaying variables. As a matter of fact, the neoclassical realist perspective on security and the distribution of power lays the foundation for the analysis of foreign policy behavior of states. The discussion reveals that the major portions of its attributes are constructed through neo-realist routes synthesizing the domestic intervening variables. Though the framework has the capacity to incorporate complexities of foreign policy and decision-making, however, it cannot be considered an independent theory for foreign policy studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]